Toonie Bear



Depicted with a Polar Bear, the Toonie Bear or Toonie or Polar is the two-dollar-coin of Canada.

The Queen and The Bear
The Toonie has the picture of the Queen on its head side and the picture of the Polar Bear on its tail side. Since Canadians worship the Queen, this is undisputed proof that Canadians also worship the Bear.

Joke

 * Q. What's on the Canadian two-dollar-coin?
 * A. The Queen with the Bear [bare] behind!

Naming
Introduction of the two-dollar-coin to replace the two-dollar-note brought about a discussion of the possible nicknames for the bear. Early candidates included "bearlie", "doubloon" (portmanteau of "double" and "loon"), "twoonie" (portmanteau of "two" and "lonnie"), "polar" (named for the type of bear), and "Bouchard" (after the Quebec separatist leader due to early coin defect with separable inner disc).

In the end, "toonie" (morphed from "twoonie") won out in English-speaking Canadians and "polar" won out in French-speaking Canadians. This resulted with the Canadians' "loonie" ($1) and "toonie" ($2) making a complete reference to the American Looney Tunes cartoon as well as "huard" (French-word for "loon") and "polaire" (French-word for "polar") rhyming.