Loonie the banknote forced acceptance of the coin. The loonie has subsequently gained iconic status within Canada, and is now regarded as a national symbol. The term "loonie" has since become synonymous with the Canadian dollar itself. The town of Echo Bay, Ontario, home of Robert-Ralph Carmichael, erected a large loonie monument in his honour in 1992 along the highway, similar to Sudbury's 'Big Nickel'. Officials for the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics invited the National Hockey League's ice making consultant, Dan Craig, to oversee the city's E Center arena, where the ice hockey tournament was being held. Craig invited a
Canadian dollar the Canadian dollar coin from the dollar bill. When the two-dollar coin was introduced in 1996, the derivative word "toonie" ("two loonies") became the common word for it in Canadian English slang. In French, the currency is also called ; Canadian French slang terms include or (the original word used in 18th-century French to translate "dollar") and (equivalent to "loonie", since is French for "loon," the bird appearing on the coin). The French pronunciation of (pronounced similarly to English as or , not like the word for hundred, or ) is generally used for the subdivision; is another, informal, term