Should the new $50 bill show an Arctic research boat instead of the Famous Five?

An arctic research vessel will replace the "Famous Five," who won full political rights for Canadian women in 1930, on the $50 bill as part of a redesign.

The current $50 note features the five women whose case to have women included in the legal definition of "people" was successful at the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of England - the highest court in Canada at the time.


The Famous Five included Emily Murphy, the British Empire's first female magistrate, and novelist and women's rights suffragist Nellie McClung.

As part of the "Frontier" series of bills, which include advanced anti-counterfeiting technology, the new bill will feature instead the CCGS Amundsen, an Arctic icebreaker and science research vessel.

Some have voiced disappointment at the design change. "It's particularly disturbing, saddening, frustrating... that the famous five or another group of identifiable Canadian women will not be on our currency," says Frances Wright, founder of the Famous Five Foundation..


But Marjorie LeBreton, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, doesn't make much of it.

"Some of these debates are so 70's," she said. "We've come so far beyond that."

The first of the new Frontier series, the $100 bill, went into circulation in November. It replaced the map of Canada with a female scientist and a bottle of insulin, representing the country's contributions to medical research.

Should an Arctic research boat replace the Famous Five on the $50 bill? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments section below. If not the Arctic ship, then what should replace them?

Related link: What do you think of the new bills?


(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)