Tobias Norris

Tobias Crawford Norris (September 5, 1861 – October 29, 1936) was a Canadian politician who served as the tenth premier of Manitoba from 1915 to 1922. Norris was a member of the Liberal Party.

Early life Norris was born in Brampton, Canada West (now Ontario), and moved to Manitoba at a young age. It also conducted a prohibition referendum and then imposed prohibition legislation. It brought in workman's compensation as well as a minimum wage. His government also introduced a rural farm credit system. It issued a mother's allowance for widows (an important measure considering his government was in power during and after World War I), a public nursing system and workplace health and safety regulations. Road construction and public works were also expanded. It also brought in Single Transferable Voting, a form of proportional representation, in advance of the 1920 election for the election of Winnipeg MLAs.

The Norris administration's relationship with the federal Liberal Party was generally poor. In 1916, the province eliminated the limited provisions for bilingual education that were agreed to in the Wilfrid Laurier-Thomas Greenway compromise of 1897 to solve the Manitoba Schools Question. The federal Liberals, still led by Laurier, were trying to rebuild a support base among Quebec nationalists. In the federal election of 1917, Norris's government supported the Union government of Robert Borden against the Opposition Liberals led by Wilfrid Laurier. The "Unionist" and "Laurier" Liberals in Manitoba were not reunited until 1922, but Norris's hold on power was never threatened by the split.

Norris was in power during a period of rising labour and farmer radicalism in Manitoba, with the most significant event being the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. The Norris government was little involved in the strike itself. His administration favoured a negotiated compromise with the strikers and played little role in the strike's suppression by the federal government. When asked about the arrest of several leading strikers, Norris responded, "Just leave us out of this."

Despite his government's progressivism, it did not withstand the growing socialist movement or the wave of farmers' radicalism that swept the country in the form of the United Farmers movement. The election of 1920 resulted in a hung parliament, with 21 Liberals, 11 Labourites, 9 Farmer representatives, 8 Conservatives and 6 independents. The Liberals remained in government, and usually depended on support from Farmer MLAs to pass legislation. It lost a vote of confidence in 1922 and then was resoundingly defeated by the United Farmers of Manitoba (UFM) in the election that followed. The UFM governed as the Progressive Party of Manitoba.

Norris was re-elected MLA in Lansdowne and served as leader of the opposition until 1927. By then, reconciled with the national Liberal Party, he contested the riding of Winnipeg South in the federal election of 1925, where he lost to Conservative Robert Rogers. He had resigned his seat to campaign federally, but was returned to the legislature in a by-election later in the same year.

Norris stood down as Liberal leader before the 1927 election, but remained a member of the legislature and was again elected for Lansdowne. He retired from politics in 1928.

Following Norris's retirement, the Manitoba Liberal Party began negotiations with John Bracken's Progressives for a formal merger. (Because of his government's language policies, Norris had been unacceptable to Bracken's francophone supporters). The two parties were merged in 1932.

Death Norris died in Toronto in 1936.