[1] He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1969 to 1990, and was a cabinet minister in the New Democratic Party governments of Edward Schreyer and Howard Pawley.
Uruski defeated Guttormson again in the 1973 provincial election, even though the Progressive Conservative Party declined to run a candidate for fear of vote-splitting with the Liberals.
On August 29, 1973, he was named a Minister without Portfolio, responsible for the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation and the Motor Vehicle Branch.
[2] Uruski attempted to develop his party's support base in rural Manitoba while serving as Agriculture Minister, though he had little success to this end.
Early in 1988, the NDP were unexpectedly defeated in the legislature when backbench MLA Jim Walding voted with the opposition in an evenly divided house.
In 1995, he was among the first to investigate alleged connections between the supposedly autonomous Independent Native Voice party and the Progressive Conservatives, after reports circulated that Interlake INV candidate Darryl Sutherland was running at the behest of local Tory interests with the intent of splitting the NDP vote.