Portage--Lisgar

Portage--Lisgar sprawls across south-central Manitoba from the outskirts of Winnipeg westward to the Saskatchewan border and south to the U.S. boundary, encompassing a vast stretch of flat, intensively farmed prairie. The riding takes in the cities of Portage la Prairie, Winkler, and Morden, along with the towns of Carman, Morris, and Altona, and had a total population of 100,417 in the 2021 census. It is one of the most linguistically distinctive ridings in Canada: as of the 2011 census, it had the highest percentage of native German speakers (23.6%) of any federal constituency, with Plautdietsch — Low German — widely spoken in the Mennonite communities of the Pembina Valley.

Candidates

Candice Bergen (Conservative) grew up in Morden, Manitoba, where her father sold auto parts and her mother worked as a hospital cleaner. She entered politics through the Canadian Alliance in the early 2000s and served as Manitoba Campaign Manager for Stephen Harper's Conservative leadership bid. First elected to Portage--Lisgar in 2008, Bergen rose through the ranks to serve as Minister of State for Social Development from 2013 to 2015 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety. She was later elected interim leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Official Opposition.

Solomon Wiebe (People's Party) grew up on a small farm near Morris and completed a four-year electrician's apprenticeship at Red River College before moving into the financial services industry. His candidacy tapped into significant populist energy in the riding, with the PPC drawing support from voters concerned about pandemic mandates, the carbon tax, and school masking policies.

Ken Friesen (NDP) was born and raised in Winkler and lives in Morden. He has worked for an international relief agency providing post-disaster aid, volunteered as a support worker for youth and adults with developmental challenges, and built a career in IT. He campaigned on issues of affordability, dental care, and pharmacare.

Andrew Carrier (Liberal) ran for the Liberals in a riding where the party has not been competitive in modern elections, seeking to offer an alternative in a constituency dominated by Conservative and, increasingly, PPC support.

About the Riding

Portage--Lisgar is among the most socially conservative ridings in Canada, shaped by its large Mennonite, Hutterite, and evangelical Christian populations. The Mennonite presence dates to the 1870s, when settlers from the Russian Empire established the West Reserve around Winkler, Altona, Gretna, and Plum Coulee. Today, Winkler — with a population of roughly 15,300 — is one of Manitoba's fastest-growing cities, driven by manufacturing, food processing, and agriculture. Morden, population 9,100, sits in the Pembina Valley, one of the province's richest agricultural zones.

Portage la Prairie — population 12,900 — is the riding's other urban anchor, located along the Trans-Canada Highway and the CPR main line. The city has a significant Indigenous population and serves as a regional service centre for central Manitoba. Nearby Hutterite colonies, numbering over thirty in the broader region, run large-scale mechanized farming operations that produce a disproportionate share of Manitoba's agricultural output.

The median individual income in 2020 was $37,200 — below the national average — reflecting the riding's reliance on agricultural and blue-collar employment. German is spoken at home by 11.7% of residents, and Plautdietsch by 7.7%, alongside English at 70.5%. The riding's Conservative dominance is longstanding and emphatic, though the People's Party made significant inroads in 2021, drawing over one-fifth of the vote and signalling a strain of populist discontent within the riding's traditionally unified right-of-centre electorate.