Appointed Chief Government Whip and Minister of State by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on October 30, 2008, the Honourable Gordon O'Connor was first elected to the House of Commons in 2004 and re-elected in 2006 in the riding of Carleton-Mississippi Mills. He was appointed to Cabinet on February 6, 2006 as Minister of National Defence and then Minister of National Revenue on August 14, 2007.

Born in Toronto, Mr. O'Connor received a Bachelor of Sciences in Mathematics and Physics from Concordia and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from York University. Before being elected to Parliament Mr. O'Connor had several careers in the private and public sectors, most notably he served Canada as a military officer for over 30 years. In addition, Mr. O’Connor has held the positions of Vice-President of Business Development and Vice President of Operations for two medium-sized enterprises and has also been a small business owner.

Mr. O'Connor has been a resident of Kanata, Ontario for over 25 years. He is married and is the father of two children.