Crisis at Red River
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constitutional framework. Acceptance of this date as that of the official anniversary would necessarily imply some retroactive recognition of the Riel provisional government, although such recognition at the time would have changed the course of subsequent history. General Garnet Wolseley s expedition did not actually arrive in the province until 20 August and possession of Fort Garry was not taken until 24 August. At that point Wolseley could well have assumed authority, but instead he
asked
Donald
A.
Smith
to
govern
in
the
name
of the Council of the old District of Assiniboia (thus presuming that Manitoba had not yet come into existence) until the new lieutenant governor, Adams G. Archibald, was sworn into office on 2 September 1870. Selection of any of these potential dates makes its own political statement. Partisanship in the matter is probably no less than in 1970, when plans to re
enact
the
Wolseley
takeover
were
hastily
scuttled at the last moment as being politically contentious. In any event, readers of The Beaver can make their own choices.
ILLUSTRATION: Louis Riel
ILLUSTRATION: Donald A. Smith and Louis Riel explain Smith s commission from the
Canadian government to a large crowd at Upper Fort Garry, 19 January 1870. Painted for the Hudson s Bay Company by Bruce Johnson.
~~~~~~~~
By J.M. Bumsted
J.M. Bumsted is Professor of History at St. John s College, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. His twovolume history of Canada was published by Oxford University Press.
