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Manitoba students have named the province’s new February holiday Louis Riel Day, la journée Louis Riel, Labour and Immigration Minister Nancy Allan announced today.

 

“We thank the students from the 114 schools who participated in the contest to name the new day and the MB4 Youth Council members who selected the winner.  All Manitobans can be proud and enjoy this new made-in-Manitoba holiday,” said Allan.  “A holiday in February between New Year’s and Good Friday will give us time to spend with family and friends.”

 

The Name the Holiday contest encouraged school children across the province to suggest names for the holiday.  They had to be relevant to Manitoba and reference citizenship, history, culture, the arts, sports or a significant individual. The MB4Youth Advisory Council then reviewed the school entries and selected Louis Riel Day as the winner.

 

The new day would bring the province to eight holidays which would keep Manitoba’s position below the national average.  The new holiday would be on the third Monday in February, similar to holidays in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

 

The following 11 schools submitted the winning entry and will receive $1,000 grants to purchase materials for their school libraries:

·         Acadia Junior High,

·         Christian Heritage School,

·         Collège St. Norbert Collegiate,

·         École Bonaventure,

·         École Élémentaire Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes,

·         École Varennes,

·         Killarney School,

·         McCreary School,

·         Roseau Valley School,

·         St. Boniface Diocesan High School, and

·         Starbuck School.

 

Shopping would be allowed on the same basis as Sundays and several other statutory holidays. The legislation that would establish the new holiday will be reintroduced today.

 

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