Born at St. Andrew's in the Red River settlement, Norquay was elected to the first provincial assembly in 1870.He held several cabinet portfolios from 1871 to 1878 when he became Premier. His government, based on communal representation and joint participation of the French and English, achieved the extension of the Manitoba boundary and better fiscal terms from Ottawa, and undertook to build railways in defiance of the Canadian Pacific charter and federal disallowance. Norquay resigned the premiership in 1887, continuing to sit as a private member until his death in Winnipeg.