Winnipeg Manitoba - Louis Riel 1844-1885 elected President of the Provisional Government of Rupert's Land and the North West; with powers to negotiate with Canadian Commissioner Donald A. Smith 1820-1914 who had just arrived at Fort Garry to explain the sale of the HBC territory to Canada.
Also On This Day...Ottawa Ontario - Lester B. 'Mike' Pearson 1897-1972 dies at age 75; born Apr 23, 1897. Diplomat and Liberal Prime Minister 1963-68, Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the Suez Crisis of 1956, setting up a UN peacekeeping force to help the British and French extract themselves from Egypt. His government is credited with bringing in medicare and the Canada Pension Plan. He is buried in Wakefield, Quebec.
Mackenzie Bowell 1823-1917
Also John Macdonald 1824-1890
Also John McDougall 1842-1917
Also Cyrus Eaton 1883-1979
Also Eric Morse 1904-1986
Also Elizabeth Smart 1913-1986
Also Fernand Nault 1921-
Also Robert Kaplan 1936-
Also Arthur Kent 1953-
publisher, politician, and fifth Prime Minister of Canada (1894-1996), born on this day in 1823 at Rickinghall, Suffolk, England; dies in Belleville, Ontario Dec 10, 1917. Bowell came to Canada at age 9; 1834 apprentice printer with the Belleville Intelligencer newspaper; later editor and proprietor; 1858-1865 Ensign, Belleville Rifle Company; 1867-1872 Major, 49th Hastings Battalion; MP 1867-1892 North Hastings, Ontario; 1870-1878 Grandmaster of Orange Order of British North America; 1878-1892 Minister of Customs; 1892 Minister of Militia and Defence; 1892-1894 Minister of Trade and Commerce; 1892-1917 Senator; Conservative leader and Prime Minister on the death of John Thompson; served Dec. 21, 1894 - April 27, 1896, when he was succeeded by Charles Tupper; one of only two Canadians to be Prime Minister while sitting in the Senate.
merchant, philanthropist, politician, born on this day at Perth, Scotland, in 1824; died at Toronto Feb. 04, 1890. Macdonald came to Canada in 1838 with his father, an army officer; educated at Dalhousie and Bay Street Academy (Toronto); 1849 opened John Macdonald and Co. dry-goods business in Toronto; 1859 largest wholesaler in Canada; 1863-87 independent Liberal MP; 1887 appointed to the Senate in 1887; author of Business Success, on Christian morality in business life; a founder of St. Andrew's College.
Methodist minister, missionary, born on this day at Owen Sound, Ontario, in 1842; died at Calgary Jan. 15, 1917. McDougall studied at Victoria College, Cobourg, 1857-60; 1874 ordained; served as missionary to the Indians of western Canada, continuing his father's work; 1869-70 and 1885 served during western rebellions; 1906 retired in Calgary; author of George Millward McDougall (1888) and Forest, Lake and Prairie (1895).
industrialist, philanthropist, was born on this day in 1883 at Pugwash, Nova Scotia; died near Cleveland, Ohio May 9, 1979. Eaton studied at McMaster University; 1906 moved to the US; became active in public utilities; 1912 organized Continental Gas and Electric Corporation; 1925 director of the Otis and Co. banking house; 1930 merged several bankrupt companies into the Republic Steel Corp.; 1950 fell out with C.D. Howe over management of Steep Rock Mine at Atikokan, Ont.; 1956 founded the Pugwash Intellectual Life Conferences, and the International Pugwash Conferences of Nuclear Scientists in 1957, which have met at his summer home by the sea at Pugwash, 100 km from Halifax; advocated the unpopular view that there should be increased diplomacy with Russia; 1960 awarded the Lenin Peace Prize; Pugwash conferences helped lay the groundwork for the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, and the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972.
canoeist, promoter of wilderness travel, born on this day at Naini Tal, India 27 Dec 1904; died at Ottawa 18 Apr 1986; 1942 served with the RCAF in Ottawa; National Secretary of the United Nations Association in Canada; national director, Association of Canadian Clubs; author of Fur Trade Routes of Canada, and his memoirs, Whitewater Saga (1987).
novelist, poet, was born on this day at Ottawa in 1953; died in Suffolk England in 1986. Smart was educated at private schools in Ottawa and spent a year at King's College, University of London. She fell in love with poet George Barker and bore him four children. She explored their relationship in her poetic novel By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept (1945) written while she lived in British Columbia. During World War II she worked in Washington DC, and for the Ministry of Defense in London, and supported her children with journalism and advertising; worked for House and Garden; 1963 literary and associate editor of Queen Magazine; 1977 published A Bonus, a collection of poems, and her second novel The Assumption of Rogues and Rascals.
dancer, choreographer, teacher, director, born on this day at Montreal in 1921. Nault studied and trained in Canada, the US and Europe; 1944-65 danced with American Ballet Theatre; 1958 a company ballet master; 1965 joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens; 1967-74 associate director; 1974-76 director of schools; 1976 resident choreographer; works include Carmina Burana (1967) and Tommy (1970).
lawyer, politician, born on this day at Toronto in 1936. Kaplan studied at the University of Toronto; 1963 called to the Ontario Bar; 1972 and 1974 lectured on Canadian affairs for the Hudson Institute; 1968-72 Liberal MP for Don Valley; 1974-93 elected in York Centre; 1980 Solicitor general; 1982 brought in the Young Offenders Act; removed national security responsibilities from the RCMP by creating the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS); 1984-93, Liberal justice and energy, mines and resources critic.
journalist, war correspondent, was born on this day in 1953. Kent was known as the Scud Stud for his CNN coverage during the Gulf War.