Larry O'Connor (born May 4, 1956) is a

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

in Ontario,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He was the mayor of the township of

Brock, Ontario Brock is a township in the Regional Municipality of Durham, Ontario, Canada. Brock Township is also a former municipality and geographic township prior to the amalgamation that formed the current municipality. The Trent–Severn Waterway forms ...

from 2006 to 2011."Mayor Larry O'Connor resigns"
mykawartha.com, March 29, 2011. He was also a

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

member of the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA, french: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by ...

from 1990 to 1995.

Background

O'Connor was born in

Oshawa Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. He worked at

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

plant as an assembly worker. He was a member of the political action committee of the

Canadian Auto Workers The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW; formally the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada) was one of Canada's largest and highest profile labour unions. In 2013, it merged with the Communications, Energy and ...

Local 222 in Oshawa. He is married to Christina with whom he has one son.

Politics

Provincial, 1990–1995

O'Connor ran as the

candidate in the 1990 provincial election in the riding of

Durham—York Durham—York was a provincial electoral district in northern Durham Region and York Region in Ontario, Canada that elected members to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. It contained the towns of East Gwillimbury, Newmarket, Ontario, Newmarket, Wh ...

. He wasn't nominated until two weeks after the start of the election. During the campaign he said the major issues were lack of approvals for expanding schools and rising property taxes. He defeated

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

incumbent Bill Ballinger by 1,230 votes. After the election he promised to clean up pollution in Lake Simcoe and Musselman Lake. He was appointed as

Parliamentary assistant In UK politics, a parliamentary assistant is an unelected partisan member of staff employed by a Member of Parliament (MP) to assist them with their parliamentary duties. Parliamentary assistants usually work at the House of Commons in the U ...

to the

Minister of the Environment An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of the environment) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet position charged with protecting the natural environment and promoting wildlife conservation. The areas associated ...

Ruth Grier Ruth Anna Grier (born 2 October 1936) is a Canadian former politician in Ontario. She was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 1995, and served as a high-profile cabinet minister in the government ...

. In 1991, he argued against a proposal to create a garbage dump in the Durham region. He suggested that York region was the only viable option. Later in the year, he defended the NDP's legislation called the Waste Management Act saying that it was a reasonable compromise to handle the problem of finding a place for Toronto's garbage. The NDP were defeated in the 1995 provincial election, having lost much of their support base in the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater T ...

. O'Connor finished second in his re-election bid, with 8,048 votes, almost 17,000 votes behind Progressive Conservative

Julia Munro Julia Ann Louise Munro (née Campbell; June 30, 1942 – June 12, 2019) was a Canadian politician based in Ontario, Canada. She was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 until 2018. She represented ...

. He planned to run for the federal

in the 2004 federal election, but lost the NDP nomination to

Sid Ryan Patrick Cyril "Sid" Ryan (born 1952) is a Canadian labour union leader and politician. Ryan is the former president of the Ontario Federation of Labour. Biography Born in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and third eldest of ten children, Ryan emigrat ...

. In 2002–03, O'Connor supported

Bill Blaikie William Alexander Blaikie (June 19, 1951 – September 24, 2022) was a Canadian politician. He served as a Member of Parliament (Canada), member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 2008, representing Elmwood—Transcona and its antecedent ridings i ...

for the leadership of the federal NDP.

Electoral record

Durham municipal, 2006-2011

O'Connor was elected as a

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

regional councillor in 1997, later becoming chair of the region's Health and Social Services committee and president of the Association of Public Health Agencies (alPHa) in the Durham region. O'Connor was first elected mayor of Brock Township in the 2006 municipal elections. He was re-elected in the 2010 municipal elections, but his 13-vote margin of victory over former mayor Terry Clayton led to a

recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...

battle. The township used a

mail-in voting Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system. In an el ...

system in 2010, and when ballots which were postmarked before election day but arrived late were counted, O'Connor's margin of victory was reduced to just three votes. O'Connor voluntarily resigned as mayor on March 28, 2011, and the township council subsequently appointed Clayton as the new mayor.

Federal, 2012

Following the resignation of

Bev Oda Beverley Joan "Bev" Oda (born July 27, 1944) is a retired Canadian politician. She was a member of the House of Commons of Canada, as well as the first Japanese-Canadian MP and List of Visible Minority Canadian Cabinet Ministers, cabinet minist ...

, the riding of

became vacant as of July 31, 2012. On October 23, O'Connor was selected as the federal

candidate in the resulting by-election to be held on November 26."Larry O'Connor gets nod for Durham NDP election candidate"
''DurhamRegion.com'', October 24, 2012.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Larry 1956 births Living people Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs Canadian people of Irish descent Mayors of places in Ontario Canadian Auto Workers people People from Oshawa Trade unionists from Ontario Canadian Métis people New Democratic Party candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Ontario candidates for Member of Parliament