Bank of Canada announces short list of Canadian women vying to be on banknote
OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada has announced its shortlist of five women contending to be the first Canadian female on the face of a banknote, and online favourite Nellie McClung is not among them.
On its website, the bank says an independent committee has narrowed down the finalists to poet E. Pauline Johnson; black rights activist Viola Desmond from Nova Scotia; Elsie MacGill, who received an electrical engineering degree from the University of Toronto in 1927; Quebec suffragette Idola Saint-Jean; and 1928 Olympic medallist Fanny Rosenfeld, a track and field athlete.
Others who didn’t make the cut included “Anne of Green Gables” author Lucy Maud Montgomery; B.C. artist Emily Carr; and Manitoba author Gabrielle Roy.
In a recent online survey conducted by Angus Reid, 27 per cent of responded favoured McClung, the Alberta suffragette who fought for women to be legally recognized as persons in Canada, making her the No. 1 choice.