New buck marks voting right

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This article was published 08/03/2016 (3725 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One century after some Canadian women won the right to vote in Manitoba, the Royal Canadian Mint has released a new $1 coin in celebration.

The coin was unveiled Tuesday afternoon at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.The coin features a 1916-era picture of a woman and a child with the woman casting a ballot as the child looks on. On the coin, the inscription reads “Women’s right to vote” and “Droit de vote des femmes” and 1916-2016. Indigenous women in Canada had to wait until 1960 to have the right to vote.

“A permanent reminder, you put your hand in your pocket and you can have something that reminds you of a fundamental human right that we have,” said Lila Goodspeed, chairwoman of the Nellie McClung Foundation, who was among the dignitaries present for the event.

“I think some of our younger people may not even know (that it was 100 years ago that the first women won the right to vote in Canada) so this coin may not even be a reminder. It may be a first time (for them to know the history of women’s right to vote in Canada). Any celebration is worth it.”

A total of five million Women’s Right to Vote $1 coins are now available across the country. The unveiling of the coin also took place on International Women’s Day, and the coins are being produced in Winnipeg at the Royal Canadian Mint.

An official ceremony was followed by a public coin exchange at the CMHR where visitors could trade their change for the new commemorative circulation coin.

Nicole Collette, 71, came to the CMHR Tuesday specifically to attend the unveiling of the new coin.

“I wanted to come because the women’s right to vote was established in Manitoba first, and so it’s a great anniversary to celebrate, and I wanted to exchange some coins,” said Collette. “I got 20. I’m going to give them to all my nieces, a sister, a sister-in-law, a girlfriend in Toronto and after that I’ve got some more friends, so we’ll see who else!”

She said it’s important to remember women haven’t always had the right to vote. Winnipeg’s Nellie McClung, Lillian Beynon Thomas, Francis Marion Beynon, E. Cora Hind and others led the charge for political equality over 100 years ago.

“We didn’t have the right to vote, that’s the way it was back then, and somebody had to fight for it, and these women fought for it,” Collette said.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca