3 Quebec women are finalists for new Canadian banknote

The Bank of Canada has announced the long listof 12 iconic Canadian women who could be featured on the first in a new series of banknotesexpected in2018.

• Bank of Canada announceslist of women being considered for bank note

Three of them are from Quebec. They fought for women's right to vote and revolutionized literature.

Meet the finalists:

ThrseCasgrain

1896 - 1981

Casgrainwas instrumental in winning Quebec women the right to vote. She helped found the provincial franchise committee forwomen's suffrageandwas leader of theLigue des droits de la femmefor 14 years.

Thanksto her efforts, women were allowed to vote in provincial elections in 1940.

Seeking to to serve in office herself, she ran as a federal Liberal seven times, but never won. She later joined theCo-operative Commonwealth Federation, which would becometheNew Democratic Party, and led its Quebec wing for seven years.

Gabrielle Roy

1909 - 1983

Born in Manitoba, Roy made a living in Montreal as a journalist. She would pen the first Canadian urban novel in 1945,Bonheur d'occasion, based on her observations of Saint-Henri, then a poor, struggling neighbourhood.

It was translated into a dozen languages, and is credited with helping fuel the mentality that led to theQuiet Revolution.

She would go on to write 15 more books that broke with Canadian literary traditions.

IdolaSt-Jean

1880 - 1945

Another fighter for women's suffrage, St-Jean was the first woman from Quebec to run in a federal election.

She started her career as an actress and later became a professorof French language and diction. She went on to work for women's rights by joining the provincial franchise committee, where she worked alongside Thrse Casgrain.

The two women split the committee in two, withCasgrain focusingher attention on middle-class women, and St-Jean on the working class.