Five candidates are vying for the Portage–Lisgar seat, including its Conservative incumbent Candice Bergen. A hub of agriculture and industry, the riding is located between the U.S. border to the south and Lake Manitoba to the north.
Candidates
Christian Heritage Party: Jerome Dondo
Conservative: Candice Bergen (I)
Green: Beverley Eert
Liberal: Ken Werbiski
NDP: Dean Harder
Last Election
Conservative Candice Bergen won her second consecutive seat in the riding with more than 23,000 votes ahead of New Democrat Mohamed Alli.
History
- Lisgar had PC cabinet ministers Jack Murta from 1970-1988 (when the riding formed) and Charlie Mayer from 1988-1993.
- In 1993, it went to Reform candidate Jake Hoeppner, who won again in 1997 with Conservative Brian Pallister a close second.
- In 2000, Hoeppner refused to switch from Reform to Alliance, criticized Reform leader Preston Manning and was expelled. Pallister grabbed the nomination and won with Hoeppner, an Independent, coming in fourth.
- Pallister was re-elected in 2004, 2006 and retired in 2008. He is currently the leader of the Manitoba provincial Conservatives.
- Candice Hoeppner, now Candice Bergen, retained the seat for the Conservatives in 2008 and won again in 2011.
Boundaries
- Between the U.S. border to the south and Lake Manitoba to the north.
- Centres include Portage La Prairie, Carman, Morden, Morris, Winkler and St. Claude.
- Home to a luscious stretch of the Red River Valley, which is prone to flooding but has good crop lands.
- Includes Long Plain and Swan Lake First Nations.
Industries
- Portage-Lisgar is a world potato processing leader with McCain Foods and Simplot.
- Also has oat-mill giant Can-Oat, and claims it's the world strawberry capital.
- The riding's Southport airbase trains military pilots.
- Carman, in the riding's centre, has a large abattoir and food processing plants, nurseries and greenhouses.
- There is farming near southeast Lake Manitoba.
- Winkler in the south has the only class A motor home builder in Canada, Triple E, and firms making electrical equipment, houseboats, straw fibre plant and tire recycling plants.
- Nearby Morden has an Agricultural Research Station, Bühler, Décor Cabinets and 3M Canada.
- St. Claude has one of Canada's largest milk processing plants.
See an interactive map of all Manitoba ridings here.