Holiday Monday celebrates Riel in Man., family in 3 other provinces

While Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario are celebrating Family Day on Monday, Manitobans are taking the day off in honour of Louis Riel, the Métis leader regarded as the founder of Manitoba who was hanged for treason in 1885.

"Had you asked me 30 years ago if Manitoba would declare Louis Riel Day, I'd have called you crazy," said Philippe Maihot, director of the St. Boniface Museum in Winnipeg.

Riel, who was hanged in 1885 at age 41, remains a controversial figure in Canadian history. Most consider him the founder of Manitoba; he is seen by some as a hero of aboriginal peoples, but by others as a traitor who instigated civil war.

Maihot said Riel's public image has been gradually transformed from "psychotic traitor" to "founder of Manitoba and Father of Confederation."

However, Maihot said, the debate over Riel is not over.

"Riel is an iconic figure that people can slap labels on and use for their own purposes. He's a 'larger-than-life religious visionary,' a 'lunatic,' he's the 'first spokesperson for western alienation.' It's all over the place. But it's through education [that] people learn to understand what his role was."

Maihot said Riel was always a hero in Métis and French communities, but his popularity is spreading to Manitoba's general population, and Monday's new provincial holiday will go a long way in establishing Métis pride.

That pride is certainly showing up in a sudden interest by young people in buying all things Louis Riel, from T-shirts, to magnets and pillows.

Brendan Ehinger started making Keeping it Riel shirts more than two years ago, thinking there might be a small market for them.

"It snowballed from there," he said.

"People would stop me and ask me, 'Wow that's a great shirt. Where did you get that? I'd say, 'I made it,' Oh, wow, 'Can you make me one?'

"By the end of the first day of wearing that shirt out, I had about a dozen e-mail addresses in my pocket of people that wanted shirts, complete strangers. So I decided that it would be a good idea to make a few more."
 
Ehinger says the shirts have been selling out at local stores.

Taking time for family

For anyone shopping in Manitoba on Monday, the stores are open under Sunday rules, noon to 6 p.m. local time in most cases.

In Ontario, Family Day was born when Premier Dalton McGuinty kicked off a successful re-election campaign last year by promising a new holiday on the third Monday in February.

Saskatchewan is marking Family Day for the second time this year. The holiday was introduced by the NDP government in 2006. Then Premier Lorne Calvert said it was a way to share the benefits of the province's booming economy with the average working person.

Alberta was the first province to establish Family Day in 1990 after then Premier Don Getty ran an election campaign in part on the theme of family togetherness.