Canadian money has been in the news a lot lately… its value bounces up and down like a porn star, we eliminated the penny entirely, and now we are issuing new bills made with plastic and very small crumbs from Tim Horton’s maple-flavoured donuts (okay, last part not true, but they are plastic).
As our “paper” money has all been relaunched over the past six months (some are still to come), there were redesigns of all of them as part of this process. And so far the images we have seen have been pretty much what you would expect: dead white guys, trains, ships, statues.
Our new paper money looks a lot like our old paper money, except for the plastic see-through thing, but according to news reports this weekend that almost wasn’t the case.
This weekend’s news reports say a market research firm hired by the government to redesign the money suggested images of a Chinese dragon parade, the swearing in of a new citizen, Toronto’s annual Caribbean festival, children of different ethnic backgrounds playing hockey or building a snowman, a person in a wheelchair playing basketball, illustrations of a gay marriage, an RCMP officer wearing a turban, and “hockey with a twist … with a black player.”
But alas trains.
The reasons for the choice are not clear in the heavily censored documents, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, but I am guessing it was our no-balls government trying to not make waves or do anything unexpected or somewhat risky.
So our money could have been revolutionary. But it’s not, we played it safe… because we’re Canadian.
Angie Uncovered
02/12/2013
There’s always the possibility that they didn’t want to listen to anyone who felt excluded bitch about it. I think that’s a common decision for most governments.
On a positive note, your money is a hell of a lot more awesome than ours!
brahm (alfred lives here)
02/12/2013
Yes our money does have that colourful Monopoly vibe to it…. so I guess that is somewhat fun in itself.
And you are probably right about them not wanting to exclude anyone, but still, this could have been such a cool step forward….
Andrea
02/12/2013
Trains are risky. Like if you jump on them or off of them or in front of them. Maybe that’s what they were going for.
brahm (alfred lives here)
02/12/2013
Yes! Yes! They chose trains because of the inherent danger! This is Canada, after all, so we don’t have many guns…. let’s use trains!
Kath
02/12/2013
So how are those Tim Horton’s maple donuts?
brahm (alfred lives here)
02/12/2013
It’s been awhile, but I do remember them as being awfully sweet….