One day a terrorist… the next, a hero.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Louis David Riel was a Canadian politician (elected three times to the Canadian House of Commons, although he never assumed his seat), the leader of the Métis people of the prairies, and is considered to be the true founder of the province of Manitoba (in these parts he’s now regarded as our greatest folk hero). Today we celebrate his contributions by means of an official provincial holiday—125 year sago he was hung for treason… his body is buried here in the churchyard of Saint-Boniface Cathedral.
“My people will sleep for one hundred years,
but when they awake, it will be the artists
who give them their spirit back.”
—Louis Riel