WINNIPEG

Portage–Lisgar

CTV Winnipeg Published Wednesday, September 30, 2015 2:27PM CST Last Updated Tuesday, October 6, 2015 1:26PM CST

Portage–Lisgar has the U.S. border to the south and Lake Manitoba to the north. Its centres include Portage La Prairie, Carman, Morden, Morris, Winkler and St. Claude.

Text:

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.