Vancouver Island artist designs loonie commemorating aeronautical trailblazer and champion of women's rights

The loonie Claire Watson designed is displayed.

An illustrator from Vancouver Island has designed the artwork on the Royal Canadian Mint’s new commemorative circulation coin, marking a career highlight.

The 2023 loonie celebrates aeronautical trailblazer and champion of women’s rights Elsie MacGill.

“She just sounded like a really fascinating person, especially during that time,” says artist Claire Watson.

The now Victoria-based artist was contacted by the mint about a year ago. She’s previously designed commemorative coins for the corporation, but never on a scale like this. She says she was asked if she’d like to submit a design for the loonie, and she was ultimately chosen for the project soon after that.

“I’m actually looking forward to one day somebody handing me one to pay for something and I’ll be like, ’Hey guess what,’” Watson smiles.

The artwork she designed and the limited edition coin itself was unveiled in Calgary Monday – honouring MacGill’s contributions to Canadian history.

“She’s a person we don’t talk about nearly enough,” said aviation fan David Dunsmore. “She was breaking barriers in so many different ways.”

She oversaw the country’s production of the Hawker Hurricane during the Second World War, as chief engineer at the Canadian Car and Foundry plant in Ontario. It earned her the nickname ‘Queen of the Hurricanes.’ She also became the first woman in the world to design an aircraft – the Maple Leaf Trainer II.

Both planes are featured on the dollar – along with her image. You’ll also find the engineer’s iron ring. There are blueprints to represent her creativity and impact on the fields of engineering and aviation. And there’s a lapel pin recognizing her work as a women’s rights advocate.

“You have to remember that she graduated from electrical engineering in 1927. That’s almost 100 years ago,” says Royal Canadian Mint president and CEO, Marie Lemay. “She just embodies that impossible and she never stopped.”

Watson says the details behind the design were vetted thoroughly.

“There was a lot of back-and-forth,” she says. “They have aeronautical engineers and full-on historians there that are fact checking for ‘Is this the right length, and is this the right length, and how is this and what’s the colours.”

Watson has been a professional artist for 22 years – and largely established her career in Tofino. She says she typically does illustrations inspired by the coast – not people -- but she says she wasn’t going to pass up the mint’s opportunity.

Three million loonies under Watson’s design will be circulated across the country.

“It’s funny. In 2019, when I got my first coin, and I was like ‘Oh, this is it. This is number one. Where do you go from here?’ And yeah, no, the loonie is definitely higher.”