Louis Riel song uses music to teach history

Tomorrow is Louis Riel Day in Manitoba and if you're wondering why the day is a holiday, perhaps you'd like to listen to a new song about Riel released this week.

Calgary artist and teacher Rob Lennard launched Louis Riel, Worthy of a Holiday! as a way to celebrate Riel, who he hold to high regard. "I just consider him a very great Canadian hero," Lennard said.

The Calgary man, who has family in Winnipeg, said he wrote the song after visiting the St. Boniface Museum and nextdoor graveyard where Riel is buried.

"I said 'my golly it's time I write a song about Mr. Riel.'"

Lennard teaches a famous Mtis people's course in Calgary and said writing the song only made sense after the museum visit, which led him to write down 50 new facts about Riel he didn't know.

While there have been other songs written about Riel, Lenard said his focuses primarily on the historical facts of Riel.

"I squeezed in close to 35 historical facts into the song."