Gordon O'Connor

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**Hon. Gordon O'Connor**

Riding	Carleton—Mississippi Mills
Political party:	Conservative
First elected:	2004 election
Profession(s):	Consultant

The Honourable Gordon O'Connor, P.C., O.M.M, C.D., M.P. B.A. , B.Sc. (born May 18, 1939) is a retired Brigadier-General, current Canadian Member of Parliament and the Minister of National Defence.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, he has a B.Sc Mathematics and Physics from Concordia University and BA in Philosophy from York University.

He served over 30 years in the Canadian Army, starting as a Second Lieutenant in the Armour Branch, retiring with the rank of Brigadier General.

He then entered the private sector as Vice-President of Business Development for a large facility management firm, and Vice-President Operations for a vehicle testing centre.

He was a Senior Associate with Hill & Knowlton Canada, a world-wide public relations, public affairs and strategic communications company. O'Conner has also been an official lobbyist for several defense industry companies. These companies include: BAE Systems (1996 to 2004), General Dynamics (1996 to 2001), Atlas Elektronik GmbH (1999 to 2004), and Airbus Military (2001 to 2004) ^[link].

He was elected in the 2004 elections as a Conservative candidate in the Ottawa riding of Carleton—Mississippi Mills with slightly more than 50% of the vote. After winning he became Defence Critic for the Official Opposition. His vote share increased in the 2006 election.

Gordon is married and has two children, both of them are adults. He now lives in Kanata, where he has lived for over 20 years.

Controversial Cabinet Selection

Though somewhat muted by the higher profile issues in the namings of David Emerson and Michael Fortier to the cabinet, the posting of Gordon O'Connor to the position of Minister of National Defence by Prime Minister Stephen Harper has met with controversy. Harkening back to ethics and accountability issues including particularly a promised crackdown on lobbying and reforms to lobbying legislation [link] that Harper raised during the '06 campaign, O'Connor's employment as a lobbyist for several major defence industry companies including some of the world's largest military contractors, such as General Dynamics and BAE Systems and Airbus as recently as 2004 was seen by many as peculiar. The minister will be responsible for spending millions of dollars in defence procurements, and will often be dealing with the very companies for whom he advised for and assisted in soliciting defence contracts; seemingly putting him in constant peril of conflict-of-interest issues[link].

O'Connor will be challenged to avoid conflict-of-interest issues early in his term as one of the first major Ministry of Defence issues the Conservatives pledged they would sort out is the replacement of the Forces 'tactical airlift' fleet. One of the most prominient companies bidding for the contract to replace the present fleet of C-130 Hercules Turboprops is Airbus S.A.S. for whom O'Connor worked as a lobbyist until February 2004, lobbying the former Liberal government to purchase the airplane that would become the Airbus A400M for its tactical airlift fleet[link].

External links

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Ambrose \| Baird \| Bernier \| Blackburn \| Cannon \| Chong \| Clement \| Day \| Emerson \| Finley \| Flaherty \| Fortier \| Harper \| Hearn \| LeBreton \| Lunn \| MacKay \| Nicholson \| O'Connor \| Oda \| Prentice \| Skelton \| Solberg \| Strahl \| Thompson \| Toews \| Verner
Members of the current Canadian Cabinet

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