[1] Early occupations included clerk, waiter, fisherman, surveyor, truck driver, timber cruiser, farm labourer, deckhand, and refinery worker.

[6] Riis was rumoured at various times in the 1980s to have been offered cabinet positions in the Brian Mulroney government if he were willing to cross the floor and join the Progressive Conservative Party.

During his parliamentary career, he introduced legislation which made ice hockey Canada's official winter sport, and unsuccessfully demanded that the government block Wayne Gretzky's trade from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings.

[7] During the early 2000s as an officer and director, Riis made overly optimistic and misleading claims and unreasonable financial projections with respect to Canadian Rockport Homes International, a start-up company established to manufacture and sell modular housing.

[5] That year, he urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to follow through on his promise to ban the export of horses for slaughter, liking the practice to "cruel and unusual punishment" and "torture.