On Monday, the Canadian government announced in its Fall Economic Statement that a new face will be coming to the country’s five-dollar bill: the late Canadian icon Terry Fox.
Fox became a national hero in the 1980s with a cross-Canada run from St. John’s, N.L., to raise money for cancer research, titled the Marathon of Hope. Fox ran nearly 4,000km of daily marathons for 4.5 months until he reached Thunder Bay, Ont., and his bone cancer returned. Fox died at the age of 22, but his legacy continues to live on.
April 12, 2025, will mark 45 years since Fox set out on his Marathon of Hope. Now, the federal government will honour his journey with a picture of Fox on the new five-dollar bill.
The Marathon of Hope raised $24.7 million, which was a dollar for every Canadian at the time. Fox’s efforts showed Canadians the difference that an ordinary person could make, no matter the circumstances.
The current face on the five-dollar bill, former Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, will reportedly be moved to the next version of Canada’s fifty-dollar bill. Laurier has been on the Canadian five-dollar bill since 2013.
