Portage and Main: How an Iconic Intersection Shaped Winnipeg's History, Politics, and Urban Life

FINALIST - Manitoba Day Awards, 2026

"For more than a generation, Winnipeg’s famous intersection was hidden behind concrete walls, its significance slowly fading from our collective memory. Just as the physical place is being reintroduced to our city, this timely and compelling book reintroduces us to the people and stories that shaped its legacy." ― Brent Bellamy, Creative Director at Number TEN Architectural Group and columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press

Portage and Main: How an iconic intersection shaped Winnipeg's history, politics, and urban life explores stories of Portage and Main throughout Winnipeg’s history and the complicated relationship between the city’s oldest intersection and culture of the urban environment that grew around it.

Fifty years ago, Portage and Main was closed to pedestrians as part of a downtown renewal project. This left an intersection void of pedestrians, and the promised vision of a revitalized city never came to fruition. 

In 2025, Portage and Main opened to pedestrians once again. With a city struggling to balance the demands of its sprawling suburbs with its need to invest in downtown, the future of this iconic crossroad is in flux once again. 

Winnipeg historians Alex Judge and Sabrina Janke, hosts of the One Great History podcast, describe how open, closed, or somewhere strange and in-between, the intersection’s history reflects the ideas of what Winnipeg is, could be, and has been. 

Whatever the case, one thing is clear: Portage and Main is far more than just an intersection.

Sabrina Janke is a historian who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, whose work has appeared on the CBC, in the Winnipeg Free Press and Prairie History Magazine. She is the co-host of podcast One Great History, and a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Heritage Conservation and Promotion. Sabrina spends her free time exploring Winnipeg, crafting, and has become a reluctant birder.

Alex Judge is a Winnipegger born and bred, except for a brief stint living in Montreal and a year in the Cabbagetown district of Toronto. In addition to her day job, Alex co-hosts the One Great History podcast, which presents the great, not-so-great, and just plain bizarre stories of Manitoba history. Alex was presented with a Winnipeg 150 medal in 2024 for her work on the show. When not at the archives, Alex enjoys crafting, mystery novels and a newfound interest in woodworking.