Portage la Prairie, Manitoba (pop. 13,270), serves as the market city for the surrounding Portage Plains farming region. Portage la Prairie ranks as one of Manitoba‘s largest retail and transportation centers. It also has several food-processing plants. The city received its name from an old portage (land route between two bodies of water) used by fur traders to travel between the Assiniboine River and Lake Manitoba to the north.
Settlement in the area began in 1738, when French traders built Fort La Reine there. Permanent settlement at the site of the present city began in 1851. In 1868, the Scottish-born businessman Thomas Spence organized the settlement into a colony called Manitobah. Portage la Prairie became a town in 1880, when the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived. The town achieved city status in 1907.
Portage la Prairie has an elected city council, which includes a mayor. A city manager, responsible to the council, is the chief administrative officer.
