Gordon O'Connor

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'**Hon. Brigadier-General Gordon James O'Connor'**
Minister of National Defence


Incumbent
Riding	Carleton—Mississippi Mills
In office since	2004 Federal Election
Preceded by	New district
Born	May 18, 1939 Toronto, Ontario
Residence	Kanata, Ontario
Political party	Conservative
Profession(s)	Canadian Forces, consultant

Gordon James O'Connor, PC, OMM, CD, BA, B.Sc., MP (born May 18, 1939) is a retired Brigadier-General, current Canadian Member of Parliament and the Minister of National Defence. He is one of a few Defense Ministers to have served in the miltary, the last being Gilles Lamontagne.

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'Connor 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) ^[1].

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. He is an honorary member of the Royal Military College of Canada student #S157.

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.

[edit] 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 O'Connor to the position of Minister of National Defence by Prime Minister Harper was met with controversy. Harkening back to ethics and accountability issues including a promised crackdown on lobbying and reforms to lobbying legislation [2] that Harper raised during the 2006 federal election, 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, BAE Systems and Airbus as recently as 2004 was seen by many as peculiar. Some feared that with the posting the minister would 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[3]. However, the aim of the Accountability Act is to prevent people from moving from government to lobbying, and not the opposite as was the case with O'Connor

There were potential conflict-of-interest issues early in his term as one of the first major 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[4].

The Canadian Government eventually decided on the C-17 Globemaster III, manufactured by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems.

[edit] Tenure as Minister

O'Connor announced on May 30th 2006 that the Canadian Forces would be suspending usage of the Mercedes G-Wagon combat vehicle to on-base operations only, after a number of Canadian soldiers were killed while travelling in the lightly-armoured vehicle. However, three months later it was revealed that no such order was ever given, and the controversial vehicles were still being used in combat operations.[5]

[edit] External links

Cabinet Post
28th Ministry - Government of Stephen Harper
Predecessor	Office	Successor
Bill Graham	Minister of National Defence (from 6-Feb-2006)	Incumbent

Preceded by riding created in 2003; see Lanark—Carleton	Member of Parliament from Carleton—Mississippi Mills 2004 - present	Succeeded by Incumbent

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