Portage

With sadness we announce the passing of Myrtle MacIntosh on August 13, 2025 with family by her side at the Portage District General Hospital the age of 89 years.

The Former Portage la Prairie Indian Residential School has been officially recognized as a site of national historic significance, decades after it closed in 1975.

On Thursday, the Government of Canada and Long Plain First Nation unveiled three commemorative plaques at the National Indigenous Residential School Museum of Canada, located on the Keeshkeemaquah Reserve.

The ceremony drew survivors, community leaders, and government officials to honour the experiences of children who attended the school and to mark the ongoing importance of education and remembrance.

The Plumas Pirates are still breathing in the Santa Clara Baseball League final.

After falling behind in the series, Plumas came out firing in Game 4 on Thursday night, building an 8-1 lead over the Portage Padres through four innings. Portage battled back with five unanswered runs to make it 8-6, but the Pirates added an insurance run and held on for a 9-6 win.

With sadness we announce the passing of Betty McFarlane on August 12, 2025 at the Portage District General Hospital at the age of 96 years.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 14TH

CFL
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 30 Ottawa Red Blacks 27

Santa Clara Baseball League
Finals - Point System (First team to 6)
Plumas 9 Portage 6
Portage leads 5-3

American Association Baseball
Winnipeg Goldeyes 7 Cleburne Railroaders 6

Thousands are out of their homes, and many more are on alert to evacuate as wildfires continue to rage across Atlantic Canada.

Officials in Newfoundland and Labrador have expanded an evacuation alert along the Bay De Verde Peninsula as the Kingston wildfire burns nearby.

The community of Job's Cove in Newfoundland is affected by the expanded evacuation alert for the wildfire, which is considered out-of-control and is now more than 90 square kilometres in size.

The Kingston fire is the largest in the province and has forced more than 3,000 people from their homes.

As combines prepare to roll across fields near Portage la Prairie, local farmers face a harvest season marked by drought recovery and the harsh new reality of a 75.8% tariff on Canadian canola exports to China.

The timing of Beijing's punitive duty, announced just weeks before harvest, compounds anxieties stemming from an arid growing season.

Seasonal challenges and cautious hope

The region endured a significant lack of rainfall through much of the spring and summer. Curtis Sims of Emiline Farms near MacGregor describes the toll.

New vibrant green markings have appeared at the busy intersection of 8th Street and Saskatchewan Avenue in Portage la Prairie.

These lines are part of a city initiative to enhance safety by clearly designating bicycle crossing areas.

According to Jocelyn Lequier-Jobin, Director of Operations for the City of Portage la Prairie, the purpose is clear.

"The green markings designate the bike lane crossings to separate the pedestrians from where the bikes are crossing and from the vehicle traffic," she says.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has set his sights on Canada's electric vehicle mandate, pledging Thursday that his party will embark on a national campaign to push the Liberal government to scrap the policy he's dubbed the "Carney tax."

Poilievre led the charge as the Conservatives relentlessly attacked the consumer carbon price over the last two years, with the Liberals admitting the Tory tactics swayed public opinion and forced them to end the so-called carbon tax earlier this year. 

Say this about the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as they hit the halfway mark of their 2025 Canadian Football League season:

They have certainly developed a flair for the dramatic — and, yes, sometimes unnecessarily — so much so that the final moments of their games could bring a stone-cold corpse to life again.

The Blue Bombers improved to 5-4 with another all-over-the-map 30-27 victory over the Ottawa RedBlacks in front of another capacity Princess Auto Stadium crowd of 32,343 that certainly felt much more difficult than it needed to be by the night’s end.