Tobias Norris

Who was Tobias Norris?

Tobias Crawford Norris was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served as the tenth Premier of Manitoba from 1915 to 1922. Norris was a member of the Liberal Party.

Norris was born in Brampton, Canada West, and moved to Manitoba at a young age. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in the 1896 provincial election in the constituency of Lansdowne. The Liberals won a landslide majority in this election, though Norris was not called to serve in the cabinet of premier Thomas Greenway.

Norris was narrowly re-elected in the 1899 election, and moved with his party to the opposition benches. He was one of many Liberals defeated in the party's electoral debacle of 1903, losing to Conservative Harvey Hicks by sixteen votes. He defeated Hicks by ninety-six votes in the 1907 election, and emerged as one of the leading figures in the legislative opposition. In 1910, he was chosen to replace Charles Mickle as provincial Liberal leader.

Conservative Premier Rodmond P. Roblin called an election soon after Norris's selection as leader, and the Conservatives won 28 of 41 seats in the resulting campaign. Norris was re-elected in Lansdowne, and continued as opposition leader. He ran a stronger campaign in the 1914 election, though Roblin's Conservatives still won 28 of 48 seats in an expanded legislature.