O'Connor is a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

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 ...

, located west of the city of

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

. The municipality was formed on January 1, 1907. The township serves as a bedroom community of Thunder Bay, with some

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

, and is part of Thunder Bay's

Census Metropolitan Area The census geographic units of Canada are the census subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada to conduct the country's quinquennial census. These areas exist solely for the purposes of sta ...

. The township was opened to settlement in 1887 because of the silver mining boom, and named by the Ontario government after Port Arthur businessman, alderman and police magistrate James Joseph O'Connor (1857–1930). The current mayor of O'Connor is Jim Vezina. The township has four councillors, Chantal Alkins, Kevin Foekens, Jerry Loan, and Bishop Racicot.O'Connor Township.com
directory. Retrieved on 23 September 2007. The township maintains a disposal site, a skating rink,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

court, and a fire station staffed by volunteer fire fighters. The township produces and distributes a newsletter called ''The Cornerstone''. O'Connor's primary industry is agriculture. Many residents commute to work either to Thunder Bay or the surrounding woodlands.

Geography

The geography of O'Connor is mainly flat open farmland and rolling hills, with the

Whitefish River Valley The Whitefish River Valley is located in the unorganized area of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, and is named for the Whitefish River that flows through it. The valley is home to several small communities that developed when land was opened for ho ...

dominating the southeast corner of the township. The township contains many creeks and rivers. The most notable geographic feature is

Kakabeka Falls Kakabeka Falls is a waterfall on the Kaministiquia River, located beside the village of Kakabeka Falls in the municipality of Oliver Paipoonge, Ontario, west of the city of Thunder Bay. The falls have a drop of , cascading into a gorge carved ...

, located in the northeastern corner of the municipality near the community of

Kakabeka Falls, Ontario Oliver Paipoonge is a township (Canada), township in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, located directly west of the city of Thunder Bay. The municipality was formed on January 1, 1998, with the amalgamation o ...

Transportation

The municipality is served by highways

590 __NOTOC__ Year 590 ( DXC) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 590 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era bec ...

and 595, which intersect in the northern half of the municipality. Highway 590 connects the community to the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...

(Highway 11/ 17) at Kakabeka Falls in neighbouring

Oliver Paipoonge Oliver Paipoonge is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located directly west of the city of Thunder Bay. The municipality was formed on January 1, 1998, with the amalgamation of the former Township of Oliver and Township of Paipoon ...

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, O'Connor had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. O'Connor ON 2

Media

The township receives good quality radio from Thunder Bay. Some radio stations from Thunder Bay do not reach this township, such as CILU-FM, The Lakehead University campus radio, and Magic 99.9 FM. Major radio 105.3 The Giant and Rock 94 reach the township with good reception.

References

External links