It’s been more than four and a half decades, but an intersection known in popular myth as Canada’s coldest and windiest is finally reopening to pedestrian traffic.
The iconic corner of Portage Avenue and Main Street in Winnipeg opens to foot traffic Friday morning, after a long and tumultuous journey, with plenty of controversy, leading up to this point.
Portage and Main has played host to some key parts of the city’s history, from indelible moments during the deadly Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, to the Winnipeg Jets signing future Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk there in 1981.
The iconic intersection was initially closed to foot traffic in the late 1970s with the creation of the underground concourse linking four corner properties. A 40-year deal to permanently close Portage and Main to pedestrians came into effect around 1978.
The idea of potentially reopening the intersection has been a near-constant topic of conversation in Winnipeg ever since — coming to head when then-mayor Brian Bowman, who originally campaigned on reopening the famous intersection, issued a plebiscite on the matter as part of the 2018 civic election, coinciding with the expiration of the city’s 40-year pact.
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That plebiscite led to a split among Winnipeggers — divided almost 65/35 — in favour of keeping the intersection vehicles-only, although later reports showed that the vast majority of the “no” voters were those whose commute took them through the intersection, but didn’t live in the immediate area. Those who lived nearby were overwhelmingly in support of pedestrian access.
Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham, who admitted to being in favour of keeping the intersection closed to pedestrians during the plebiscite — when he was a city councillor — announced in March of 2024 that he’d had a change of heart, after a city report about the costs of replacing the waterproof membrane that protects the underground pedestrian concourse.
Gillingham said in 2024 that much more information about the state of the intersection had become available in the years since the plebiscite, and suggested many Winnipeggers might have voted ‘yes’ on opening Portage and Main had they known more details at the time.
Council voted “yes” to reopening the iconic intersection to pedestrians later that month, with the plan to coincide with the city’s overhauled transit system, which launches this Sunday.
Winnipeg launched additional pedestrian amenities earlier this week — starting the process to convert a stretch of downtown’s Graham Avenue, previously a busy transit route, into a pedestrian and cyclist-friendly ‘placemaking project’.
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