New $20 bill celebrates Canada’s colonial past when it should celebrate Canada
TORONTO, September 24, 2026 — Republic Now today criticized the Bank of Canada’s decision to place King Charles III on Canada’s new $20 bank note, calling it a missed opportunity to put a Canadian on the country’s most frequently used bank note for the first time in Canada’s 159-year history.
The Bank of Canada unveiled the new $20 note on September 3. It will enter circulation in February 2027 and will feature King Charles III on the front and the Canadian National Vimy Memorial on the reverse.
“We had an opportunity to put a Canadian on the country’s most frequently used bank note,” said Republic Now Director Ashok Charles. “Instead, we have once again reserved this extraordinarily prominent symbol of Canada for a hereditary monarch who lives in another country and did nothing to earn the position he occupies.”
The Bank of Canada says the $20 is the bank note denomination Canadians use most often. Since the Bank began issuing notes in 1935, the denomination has traditionally carried the image of the reigning monarch.
Republic Now argues that continuing that practice is particularly difficult to justify when other Canadian bank notes demonstrate how currency can honour notable Canadians. The current $10 note features civil-rights pioneer Viola Desmond, while Terry Fox has been selected for the next $5 note.
“Canada has produced extraordinary scientists, artists, writers, humanitarians, Indigenous leaders, political reformers and champions of human rights,” Charles said. “Surely one of them has a stronger claim to a place on Canada’s most-used bank note than a British-born hereditary monarch.”
CANADA ALONE IN THE G7 DOES NOT FILL AND ADMINISTER ITS OWN OFFICE OF HEAD OF STATE
Republic Now says the new bank note draws attention to a remarkable anomaly in Canada’s status as a sovereign nation.
Canada is the only G7 country that does not fill and administer its own office of head of state.
The person who inherits the British throne automatically becomes Canada’s head of state. In practical terms, Republic Now argues, Canada outsources the filling of its highest constitutional office to Britain.
“Britain has a British head of state determined through a British institution,” Charles said. “France has a French head of state. Germany has a German head of state. Italy has an Italian head of state, and Japan has a Japanese head of state. Canada accepts as its head of state whoever Britain has in the role.”
“It is commendable that we have flown a distinctively Canadian flag since 1965 and that we patriated our constitution in 1982,” Charles said. “But for a sovereign democracy, it should be a source of embarrassment that Britain still fills and administers our highest executive office—not something to highlight on the bank note Canadians use more than any other.”
Republic Now advocates replacing Canada’s constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary republic headed by a democratically selected Canadian.
The reform would preserve Canada’s parliamentary system. Political executive authority would continue to be exercised by the Prime Minister and Cabinet, accountable to the elected House of Commons. A Canadian head of state would assume the non-partisan constitutional and ceremonial responsibilities presently associated with the Crown and the Governor General.
“It means becoming more completely Canadian,” Charles said. “We can preserve parliamentary government while finally ensuring that Canada fills every Canadian public office—including the highest one.”
Republic Now calls on the federal government and the Bank of Canada to abandon the convention that the monarch should appear on the $20 note and to use Canada’s most frequently circulated denomination to honour Canadians and Canadian achievements.
“The reverse of the new $20 bill features the Vimy Memorial, commemorating Canadians who sacrificed their lives for this country,” Charles said. “There is a profound irony in pairing that powerful expression of Canadian nationhood with the image of a British-born hereditary monarch on the other side. Our currency should tell the world who we are as an independent nation—not preserve a symbol of the colonial relationship from which Canada emerged.”
As part of its campaign, Republic Now is sending its critique of the new $20 bank note to all members of Parliament and the Senate and to members of every provincial legislature in Canada.
Republic Now is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization which advocates for the replacement of the British monarch, as Canada’s head of state, with a democratically-selected Canadian.