Vote for your favourite design
The Mint wants five new coin designs for Canada’s 150th birthday, and you can vote for the winner now that experts have whittled down a short list.
From the very serious to the cute to the schmaltzy, 25 designs from budding artists and patriots across the country are all online and waiting for you to pick a new nickel, dime, quarter, loonie and toonie (no penny, obviously).
Voting runs until Oct. 9 at mint.ca/ Canada150.
There’s even an Ottawa entry: Gordon Ho of Barrhaven has submitted a view of an astronaut on a spacewalk, standing on the end of a Canadarm. The title: Making the Impossible Possible.
For Gordon Ho, the decision to enter was a natural fit. He works in automation testing development, but he has always loved to draw as a creative outlet. He would sit up late into the night, after his young son was in bed, listening to music and studying astronauts’ suits and the various Canadarms to get the detail right.
One night Chris Hadfield was interviewed as he worked — a special treat.
“He’s one of the people I would love to meet.”
The details are trickier than people might think, he said. “Suits have changed over time. “I was trying to make something that was as dynamic as possible,” but without twisting his astronaut into an impossible position. He imagined Hadfield looking at the drawing and saying, “I can’t pose like that because the suits are too restrictive.”
Ho was thrilled when they picked his design, but admits to being nervous now as well as excited. Among the other submissions: One entry is called Wheat. It shows wheat. Two stalks, close up. Might work with the loonie because of the yellow colour.
Coast to Coast shows an ocean in the foreground, sunset over mountains in the background, and a lot of landscapes in between (plus the CN Tower).
And there’s another called Coast to Coast. It shows a fishing boat in the foreground, some trains, mountains, a grain elevator, and again the CN Tower, even bigger than in the first Coast to Coast. Neither artist is from Toronto.
Confederation Bouquet shows many different flowers growing from a single stalk.
There are two designs showing people in a circle holding hands — one close up and the other with stylized people who appear to be dancing in a circle, or, from a certain perspective, skydiving.
You want symbolism laid on thick? The Colours of Art in Canada has a beaver sitting on an inukshuk holding an artist’s palette and painting a maple leaf.
Fly Canada Fly has a happy little cartoon man in an airplane. The style will be familiar to anyone who ever doodled airplanes during math class. It is the most cheerful entry by a mile, and the plane has a fin on top like a shark’s.
Farmers — Our Lifeline shows a man in overalls, with tractor. Canada geese overhead.
After that there are more salmon, beavers, Canada geese (though out in nature, not pooping on city bike paths), a snowman, a campfire, a kid in a snowsuit, a canoe under windswept pine trees, northern lights, and a snowflake made of flowers.
Notably absent from all finalist designs are loons, polar bears, caribou and the Bluenose.
The coins are arranged in five categories of five finalists each — five themes called our character, our achievements, our wonders, our passions and our future.
The Mint received some 10,000 entries after announcing a nationwide contest. Mint employees and coin experts cut that number down to 25 finalists.
I was trying to make something that was as dynamic as possible.