Iconic woman with northwestern Ontario connection a finalist for next series of bank notes
Amy Hadley | CBC News | Posted: May 4, 2016 11:00 AM | Last Updated: May 4, 2016
Elsie MacGill, 'Queen of the Hurricanes,' among 12 women being considered by the Bank of Canada
A pioneering female aerospace engineer who rose to fame while working in the city of Fort William (now Thunder Bay, Ont.) is one of a dozen women being considered by the Bank of Canada for a new series of bank notes.
- Bank of Canada announces list of women being considered for bank note
- Canadian women will be on next series of bank notes, Trudeau announces
Elsie MacGill became known as the "Queen of the Hurricanes," while leading the effort to manufacture more than 1,000 Hawker Hurricane airplanes at the Canadian Car and Foundry plant in Fort William during the Second World War.
For Thunder Bay filmmaker Kelly Saxberg, MacGill is an obvious choice to grace Canadian currency.
"I can't imagine anyone more deserving," said Saxberg, who chronicled MacGill's story in her 1999 documentary film Rosies of the North.
"It's thrilling."
A symbol of wartime effort
Elsie MacGill was born in B.C. and became the first woman to graduate with an electrical engineering degree from the University of Toronto.
She went on to become the first woman to earn a master's degree in aeronautical engineering and to rise to the top of her male-dominated field.
During her time at the Canadian Car plant, MacGill became a symbol of the wartime effort and was even featured in a comic book in 1942.
After the war, MacGill became a leading activist for women's rights in Canada, and was named to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in the 1960s.
MacGill died in 1980.
Corrections:
- An earlier version of this article stated that thousands of Hurricane airplanes were produced at the Canadian Car and Foundry plant in Fort William. In fact the number was close to 1,400. May 4, 2016 2:19 PM