Donald Smith is elected to the provincial…

Donald Smith is elected to the provincial legislature for the riding of Winnipeg and St. John, defeating long-time HBC nemesis John Christian Schultz by 71 votes to 63, in Manitoba's first general election, held on December 27, 1870.

Smith is a supporter of Archibald's consensus government, and opposes Schultz's ultra-loyalist Canadian Party; there is a riot among the Ontario soldiers stationed in Winnipeg following the announcement of Smith's victory.

Without an amnesty, and with the Canadian militia beating and intimidating his sympathizers, Riel had fled to the safety of the St. Joseph's mission across the border in the Dakota Territory.

However, the results of the first provincial election in December 1870 are promising for Riel, as many of his supporters have come to power.

Nevertheless, stress and financial troubles precipitate a serious illness—perhaps a harbinger of his future mental afflictions—that will prevent his return to Manitoba until May 1871.

Smith will stay in the region after 1870, and will be responsible for negotiating the transfer of HBC land to the federal government (as well as coordinating the transfer of several specific land claims in the region).

Smith becomes a Conservative representative in the Manitoba legislature.

The Red River resistance was only described as a rebellion after sentiment grew in Ontario against the execution of Thomas Scott.

Historian A.G. Morice suggests that the phrase "Red River Rebellion" owes its persistence to alliteration, a quality that made it attractive for publication in newspaper headlines (Critical History of The Red River Insurrection [1935]).

The word "resistance", though decidedly less dramatic, retains the alliterative character of the earlier phrase and is generally preferred by the majority of contemporary academic historians, as it more accurately describes the particulars of the political situation at the time.