http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=59817&mesg_id=59888&page=Indulgence in adolescent rebelliousness isn't our favourite pastime up here, y'know.
Not that Victoria Day could really be said to be a celebration of Victoria's contribution to the existence of the wondrous, modern state that is Canada. It's pretty much just a day off work between Easter and Canada Day. We don't get one in February when you guys have Presidents' Day, and a counterpart is indeed sorely needed in those dark days; maybe we'd have been better off if we'd signed on to that revolution thing. On the other hand, you don't get Civic Holiday (formerly, and Brit-ly, Bank Holiday) on the first weekend in August. A holiday for nothing, on a weekend when a holiday for the masses is a nice idea.
And d'ya know, I've never, to my recollection, heard of "Patriots Day" in Quebec. In point of fact, Quebec doesn't celebrate May 24th at all.
There was a rather important rebellion just after the 1867 Confederation (the pact that produced modern-day Canada). The patriots in question that time were substantially outside Quebec. Quebec has had precious little interest in or concern for the francophone minorities outside Quebec ever since, and in fact has opposed measures that would guarantee their language and cultural rights.
I've lost track of the Louis Riel statue business; the proposal to have one in Ottawa, with all the other statues of famous/important Canadians, is still just a proposal, I think. But there's a prominent one in Manitoba
http://ccge.org/ccge/english/teachingResources/rivers/tr_rivers_RRuprising.htmLouis Riel leads the Red River Rebellion.
The British colonies of eastern North America united in 1867. They became provinces of the new country of Canada. The new country's leaders immediately prepared to take over the Hudson's Bay Company lands west of Ontario.
But when the Red River Métis learned that the government of Canada was not going to let the Métis keep their property, they organized to fight the Canadian takeover. A group of Métis met in their parish church in St. Norbert in 1869. They elected a national Métis committee, with Louis Riel as its leader.
The Métis descended from the marriages of French-speaking fur traders and First Nations women.
Riel led a band of 500 Métis militia soldiers to invade the Hudson Bay Company's Upper Fort Garry in Winnipeg. The Métis declared themselves to be a provisional government for the territory. While Riel held the fort, keeping non-Métis people prisoner there, St. Norbert's parish priest went to Ottawa to negotiate the entry of Manitoba into Confederation - with a guarantee of Métis property and language rights.
The negotiations ended with the passage of the Manitoba Act in 1870. The Manitoba Act recognized Métis rights. But, before the news could reach Manitoba, Riel ordered the execution of an unruly English-speaking prisoner from Ontario. This act would be Riel's fatal error.
Following Thomas Scott's execution, Ottawa sent soldiers to take control from Riel's militia. Public outrage in Ontario over the execution of the prisoner meant the government would not agree to the Métis request for an amnesty from prosecution. As the Canadian troops approached, Riel fled into exile in the United States.
Riel was elected to the new Canadian parliament by his Métis supporters three times. But, because he was wanted for Scott's murder, he did not return to Canada to take his seat. Without that killing, Riel might have become a respected statesmen, able to defend the rights his people had won in the Manitoba Act.
Instead, those rights were ignored. Métis claims to land were denied. The official status of their French language was revoked. The Métis declined in power and many of them moved westward in search of greater freedom and prosperity.
Riel finally returned to Canada in 1884 to take charge of another Métis uprising in Saskatchewan. This time, he was captured and hanged. His execution increased his stature as a hero for many French-speaking Canadians across the country.
In 1992, the provincial government formally recognized Louis Riel as a founding father of Manitoba. But the controversy continued over the statue raised to honour him. His supporters protested that the statue of a partially-clothed Riel was an indignity. So, in 1996, a new statue of Louis Riel, fully-clothed, was put in place.
And the question of whether Riel was a madman (there's considerable evidence to that effect) or a visionary will be debated for centuries to come ...
In any event, you will observe that 1837 preceded 1867, and reasonably imagine that the rebellions in question were part of the process that led to the negotiated creation of Canada. Had the rebellions succeeded, and republican government(s) been established in Upper and Lower Canada, there would likely be no Canada at all now, and certainly would be no French Canada, inside or outside Quebec ... and I'd most probably be living under the reign of George Bush II. Ta, but no ta. ;)
http://www.canadiana.org/citm/specifique/rebellions_e.html