Will Nellie McClung return on a Canadian banknote?
The Bank of Canada announced on 8 March 2016 that for the first release of its next series of banknotes it wants a woman to appear on the new note. A public call for names resulted in a list of 18,000 women which was narrowed down to 12 eligible women: politician Therese Casgrain, aeronautical engineer Elsie MacGill, 'Anne of Green Gables' author Lucy Maud Montgomery, artist Emily Carr, black activist and businesswoman Viola Desmond, poet E. Pauline Johnson, author Gabrielle Roy, artist Pitseolak Ashoona, suffragette Idola Saint-Jean, humanitarian Lotta Hitschmanova, athlete Fanny (Bobbie) Rosenfeld and suffragette Nellie McClung.
Out of these 6 women Nellie McClung received by far the most votes in a poll according to the Winnipeg Free Press. A massive 27% of all voters voted for her, while the other women didn't get more than 10% of the votes. From Wikipedia: "She was a part of the social and moral reform movements prevalent in Western Canada in the early 1900s. In 1927, McClung and four other women: Henrietta Muir Edwards, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby, who together came to be known as "The Famous Five" (also called "The Valiant Five"), launched the "Persons Case," contending that women could be "qualified persons" eligible to sit in the Senate. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that current law did not recognize them as such. However, the case was won upon appeal to the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council—the court of last resort for Canada at that time."
If Nellie McClung is indeed chosen to be the face of one of the banknotes of the next series it will actually be a return for her. She was also featured on the back of the 50-dollar note from the previous series together with the other members of The Famous Five (see below) which was issued in 2004.
The new note from the next series will be issued in 2018.
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