Louis Riel And Macdonald's Contributions To Canada

The first Canadian postage stamp, the three-pence beaver, was issued on 23 April 1851. Imperforate stamps gave way to perforated stamps in 1858 and by 1897, the first commemorative stamp had been issued to honour the 60th Anniversary of Queen Victoria’s reign. Canada Post eventually issued a policy guideline: to have one’s image put on a Canadian postage stamp, one must have made “outstanding contributions to Canada.” Two of Canada’s most controversial historical figures, Louis Riel and Sir John A. Macdonald, both had their images placed upon Canadian stamps. Louis Riel was a Métis leader executed in 1885 for leading a series of rebellions against the Canadian government. Riel is also regarded as “the Father of Manitoba” , having been the

Yet, based on the guidelines, Riel and Macdonald do equally deserve the honour of having their image upon a Canadian postage stamp, as their actions shaped the country while their mistakes equalised all imbalances in their contributions.

Louis Riel’s contributions to Canada are most evident in his advocating of Métis rights. His rise to power as a Métis leader began in 1869 when he emerged as one of the few individuals publically advocating the Métis cause in the Rupert’s Land negotiations between the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) and Canada. By the summer of 1869, Riel had begun advocating action against the surveying and gifting of Métis land to settlers. He convinced a multitude of men that a provisional government ought to be put in place to “[make] a clear protest against the injustice…done [by] Canada.” Riel became the government’s secretary, declaring that “the territory south of the Assiniboine belonged to the people of Red River…and that the Métis would not allow the survey to

He was, after all, a “Father of Confederation”, one of the founding fathers of the country. Therefore, his key contribution to Canada was Confederation in 1867. Whether Macdonald was one of the earliest advocates of the union of the British North American (BNA) colonies is debatable, but he was certainly the leader of the process of unification. After all, it was Macdonald who drafted 50 of the 72 resolutions established at the Quebec conference of 1864 where he held control over the discussion about the unification of the BNA colonies. These resolutions “established the framework for a united Canada.” Furthermore, it was Macdonald who set forth the idea of a union between not only the Canadas and the Maritime provinces but also with Rupert’s Land and British Colombia. This then led to his idea of building a continental railway, which eventually blossomed into the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which was completed on 7 November 1885, connecting the continent from sea to sea. The railroad was the “foundation of [the] nation-building program”, and was his second contribution. It allowed for the citizens of Canada to “come to know each other and to need each other”, and also allowed for a national market as an extension of the National Policy. It is understandable that Macdonald’s actions were more significant than Riel’s. Macdonald, after all, was the founder of a nation, knighted by the