Banking on it: Dal alumnae up for Canada's new bank note

In 2018, Canada’s next series of bank notes will enter circulation — with one of the denominations, for the first time in the nation’s history, featuring the portrait of a Canadian woman.

On International Women’s Day last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Bank of Canada announced an open call for submissions from the public to help determine just who that woman should be.  The campaign — called “Bank NOTE-able” — invites submission via the Bank of Canada website and encourages discussion on Twitter with the hashtag #BankNOTEable.

So far, nearly 130 women have been nominated who meet the qualifying criteria, and two of them — Lucy Maud Montgomery and Portia White — are Dalhousie alumnae.

Dalhousie’s alumni relations team in the Office of Advancement is encouraging more nominations of Dal alumnae in the lead-up to the submission deadline on April 15. (They're also promoting the campaign via the @Dal_Alumni Twitter account.)

“Our alumni have enriched and advanced Canadian society in so many ways, and we’re proud to have two remarkable alumnae nominated thus far to appear as the first woman on a Canadian bank note,” says Naomi Hill, alumni engagement officer.

“We hope the Dal community takes some time to learn about Portia White, Lucy Maud Montgomery and the other incredible women who’ve been nominated — and, hopefully, submit some nominations of their own.”

Celebrating alumnae  

The two Dal women nominated thus far, Montgomery and White, are among the university’s most famous alumnae. Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942), who became world-renowned for her Anne of Green Gables series of novels, studied literature at Dalhousie in 1895/96. Portia White (1911-1968), who became the first Black Canadian concert singer to win international acclaim, attended Dalhousie in 1929, studying teaching.

Candidates for the new bank note must be a Canadian woman (by birth or naturalization), deceased for at least 25 years, who demonstrated outstanding leadership, achievement or distinction in any field, benefiting the people of Canada or in the service of Canada.

To learn more visit the Bank of Canada website.