Carney to include women on U.K. bank notes after women purged from Canada’s

OTTAWA – The Bank of England’s new governor, Mark Carney, is getting plaudits for suggesting images of women must be included on that country’s new bank notes.

But Canadian women activists say Carney did not heed their own protests when he was Canada’s bank governor — and removed images of women from Canada’s own currency.

Carney was in charge when new plastic $50 bank notes were announced in 2011, replacing the images of five famous Canadian women with a picture of an icebreaker.

The move sparked a protest, led in part by Calgary city council, to restore the so-called Famous Five, but the bank rejected the complaints saying it was too late to change the images.

One of the protesters, Merna Forster, says she hopes the Brits have better luck with Carney than Canadians did.

A Bank of Canada spokesman says the currency design process is being reviewed, partly to consider the issue of women’s images on future bank notes.