Today we celebrate Louis Riel, Canada’s legendary Métis leader and– in my books – a Father of Confederation. He was born in the era of Queen Victoria, in St- Boniface in 1844, in what is now Manitoba, 178 years ago today.
He was the oldest of 11 children in his family. Riel would go on to lead armed resistance against the encroachment of the new Dominion of Canada on his people’s lands and remains one of the most complex and fascinating public figures of that era. Like his political nemesis, Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston, Riel is greatly misunderstood today. But like Macdonald, Riel’s crucial role in the making of what is now Canada cannot be denied.
Happy birthday, Louis Riel!caption id="attachment_1310785" align="alignleft" width="300"
A young Louis Riel/captionArthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.