London Cigarette Card Company card 1924 depicting: Louis David Riel (1844  1885). Canadian politician. a founder of the province of Manitoba. and a political leader of the M?tis people of the Canadian prairies. He led two resistance movements against the Canadian government and its first post-Confederation prime minister. Sir John A. Macdonald. Riel sought to preserve M?tis rights and culture as their homelands in the Northwest came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence.