Restored Louis Riel monument to be rededicated Thursday

A monument to Manitoba's founder, which was in such disrepair it was being used as a community billboard, is being rededicated Thursday. 

Riel Park in St. Vital has been home to the concrete sculpture of Louis Riel since 1979. But its designer was shocked last year when he paid a visit to his work.

"I drove down there last year in the fall and I was disappointed and a bit disgusted," said Randall Ranville. "It was painted a really, really terrible colour — it was a greyish-green. The folks in the area were putting notices on the monument for up-and-coming events. Posters were attached to it."

The monument was originally a brilliant white with gold lettering that read "Louis Riel Memorial Park." But the letters had faded and the dedication plaque couldn't be seen, said Coun. Brian Mayes.

The St. Vital councillor spearheaded a small campaign to have the monument restored and moved into a new section of the park.

On Thursday, the monument will be rededicated in Riel's honour.

"It's beautiful," Ranville said. "It's the original bright, white colour."

The monument has received a new dedication plaque in French and English next to it, along with the original plaque at the bottom. As well, the monument has been moved to the eastern end of the park, and a small pathway and a couple benches have been added. 

Symbol of Riel's dream

Ranville said he was approached by the city and the Manitoba Métis Federation in the late '70s to design the monument as part of a regular celebration called Métis Days. The MMF had taken over the project from the Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph, who had the original agreement to put up a monument in the park in 1965.

Together with his late uncle George Ranville, the pair made the monument a reality.

"The design I created myself. It's two white doves facing each other," Ranville said. "I was trying to signify Louis Riel's dream of having the French and English-speaking people to live in harmony and peace."

However, over the years the monument fell off the city's radar and it needed a facelift, Mayes said,  

Mayes used $10,000 from his community committee land dedication fund to cover the costs of restoring and moving the monument. 

While the Manitoba Métis Federation is grateful the city is restoring the monument, the federation wonders why they were not involved, said Jonathan Hamel, the federation's communications director.

"If they had contacted the Métis government, we certainly would have paid for that restoration," Hamel said. "He was our founding father, our first governor, our first president, our first everything."

The MMF says it doesn't have any record of being involved in the commissioning of the original monument, but says if city records had shown their involvement, they would have invested in its restoration, Hamel added.

Mayes said there was no disrespect intended to the MMF, but he "dealt with Union nationale métisse throughout [the restoration process] as Riel Park was their site originally."

The monument will be rededicated at 11 a.m. Thursday near St. Anne's Road and Meadowood Drive.