Coins and Canada - 1 dollar 2023 - Elsie MacGill, Queen of Hurricanes

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1 dollar 2023 - Elsie MacGill, Queen of Hurricanes

By thecanadiannumismatist | Tuesday, 1 August 2023

The Royal Canadian Mint issued a new $1 commemorative circulation coin honouring Elsie MacGill, Canadian engineer and leading advocate of women's rights. Responsible for many firsts as a woman studying and practicing engineering, she was celebrated for setting up the Canadian production of the Hawker Hurricane fighter plane during the Second World War. Her lifelong advocacy for women's rights included her appointment to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, in 1967.

The artwork appearing on the reverse of the 2023 $1 circulation coin celebrating Elsie MacGill is the creation of Tofino, British Columbia artist Claire Watson. It features Elsie MacGill holding a pair of rolled-up blueprints. Flying above her is the Maple Leaf Trainer II that she designed and beside her appears one of the over 1,450 Canadian-made Hawker Hurricane fighter planes that she helped produce for the Allied war effort in the Second World War, as Chief Engineer of Canadian Car and Foundry in Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay). Her name, Elsie MacGill, is engraved beneath the fighter plane. The obverse of this coin features the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II by Susanna Blunt.

Through her dedication and an unshakeable belief that there was nothing women could not do, Elsie MacGill broke the glass ceiling for Canadian women pursuing careers in engineering, and made historic contributions to Canada's efforts during the Second World War. I am so pleased that this commemorative coin will honour the legacy of a remarkable champion of women's rights, and will share her story with a new generation of Canadians.

- Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance

Elsie MacGill (Elizabeth Muriel Gregory) was born in 1905 in Vancouver. Her mother, Helen Gregory MacGill, was a journalist and became British Columbia's first female judge. Advocate for women's suffrage, she influenced Elsie MacGill's decision to study engineering.

She is widely credited as: the first woman in Canada to graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering (University of Toronto, 1927); the first woman in North America to graduate with a Master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering (University of Michigan, 1929); the first woman in Canada to become a practising engineer (1938); as well as the first North American woman, and possibly the world, to design an aircraft that was produced under her direction through to prototype (the Maple Leaf II trainer). Although her education and career were interrupted in 1929 by a form of polio that affected her mobility for the rest of her life, she persevered and excelled in aeronautics.

She worked at Canadian Car and Foundry (CanCar) during World War II and was the person chosen to build the Hawker Hurricane fighter plane for the Royal Air Force. The factory grew from around 500 people to 4,500 at the end of the war, half of them women. The Hurricane earned her the nickname Queen of the Hurricanes.

After the war, she continued her career in aeronautics, aiding in the development of international civil aviation safety standards. She also increasingly focused on her passionate work as a critical and influential advocate for women's rights and professional equality. She presided over the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs from 1962-64 and was appointed a Commissioner on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in 1967.

After a short illness, MacGill died on November 4, 1980 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Inspiring Canadians through stories of exceptional achievement is one of the most important functions of commemorative circulation coins. What Elsie MacGill achieved as a trail blazing aeronautical engineer, and as a champion of women's rights, made a difference in her lifetime and continues to influence us today. Hers is a story that needs to be shown and celebrated on a circulation coin that will be shared by millions of Canadians of all ages.

- Marie Lemay, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint

Next commemorative circulation coin announced will be a 2 dollars 2023 (coloured and non coloured) will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of artist Jean-Paul Riopelle.