Portage—Lisgar

Portage—Lisgar is a federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1997.

Demographics

 * According to the 2021 Canadian census

Ethnic groups: 82.3% White, 11.5% Indigenous, 2.2% Filipino, 1.5% South Asian Languages: 70.5% English, 11.7% German, 7.7% Plautdietsch/Low German/Low Saxon, 3.5% French, 1.5% Russian, 1.2% Tagalog

Median income: $37,200 (2020)

Average income: $45,560 (2020)

According to the 2011 Census, Portage—Lisgar was the riding with the highest percentage of native German speakers (23.6% of the population at the time) in all of Canada. Only Inuktitut (Nunavut: 66.8%) and Panjabi (Punjabi) (Newton—North Delta, in British Columbia: 33.4%) exceed this concentration of native speakers of a non-official language in a single riding.

Geography
This is a rural district that encompasses most of Central Manitoba. It includes the cities of Portage la Prairie, Winkler, and Morden, and the towns of Carman, Morris and Altona.

As a rural Western riding, the Conservatives dominate this riding, except for in First Nations areas. In 2021, due to opposition to COVID-19 restrictions, the People's Party broke through and were able to do strongly in areas with large Mennonite populations like the Rural Municipality of Stanley, the Municipality of Rhineland and Winkler, municipalities that went heavily Conservative in 2019. Because of this shift in 2021, the Conservatives did best in rural areas with fewer Mennonites, such as the Municipality of Norfolk Treherne. In 2021, the NDP was able to win both the Swan Lake First Nation and Long Plain First Nation. The Liberals are also strong in the Long Plain First Nation, which they won in 2019, and also have some residual strength in the Rural Municipality of St. François Xavier.

History
The electoral district was created in 1996 from the former districts of Lisgar—Marquette and Portage—Interlake. It originally consisted of the rural municipalities of Argyle, Cartier, Dufferin, Grey, Lakeview, Lorne, Louise, Macdonald, North Cypress, North Norfolk, Pembina, Portage la Prairie (except for the northeast corner), Roblin, Roland, South Norfolk, Stanley, Thompson, Victoria and Westbourne; the cities of Portage la Prairie and Winkler; the towns of Carberry, Carman, Gladstone, Manitou, Morden, Pilot Mound, and Treherne; the villages of Cartwright, Crystal City, MacGregor, Notre Dame de Lourdes, Somerset, and St. Claude; and the Indian reserves of Dakota Plains 6A, Long Plain 6, and Swan Lake 7.

In the 2003 redistribution, it lost the rural municipalities of Lakeview and Westbourne and the town of Gladstone to Dauphin—Swan River; and the rural municipalities of Argyle, North Cypress and Roblin, the town of Carberry, and the village of Cartwright to the riding of Brandon—Souris. It gained the rural municipalities of Rhineland and St. François Xavier; and the towns of Altona, Gretna and Plum Coulee from Provencher.

In the 2012 electoral redistribution, this riding lost the rural municipality of North Norfolk and the town of MacGregor to Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa and the rural municipalities of Victoria, and Louise and the town of Pilot Mound and the village of Crystal City to Brandon—Souris. It gained the rural municipality and the town of Morris from Provencher and remainder of the rural municipality of Portage la Prairie from Selkirk—Interlake.

Members of Parliament
This riding has elected the following members of Parliament:

Current member of Parliament
Its most recent member of Parliament was Candice Bergen, who resigned on February 1, 2023. She was first elected in the 2008 Canadian federal election.