PICKERING: Ever wonder where she is now, Jennifer O’Connell

Jennifer O’Connell, ever wonder where she is now?

Jennifer is relaxed, restore and revived in a whole new life, away from politics.

Jennifer retired from the world of politics after a very distinguished career of over 20 years there. She rose through the different government levels, municipal, regional and federal with the bulk of her civil service spent doing a committee work in Ottawa.

Law school was Jennifer’s first goal when she was to begin her university studying, but her responding to a request to help in a political campaign opened the door to a new career. She began at the bottom rung of the political levels ladder, municipal politics. A shy young woman, door-to-door campaigning was a personal challenge. She persevered proving herself to be a hard worker capable of overcoming challenging obstacles. She found the campaign work addictive and was drawn in to do more of it.

A new election opened a new door. Jennifer was asked to work on Justin Trudeau’s leadership campaign in the Durham region. She again proved herself to be a diligent party worker, although, as she herself states her first tasks in the Liberal Party were not high-level ones. She chauffeured Trudeau driving him to the political events around the GTA. The role ironically drove her to new political heights. Asked to run as the Durham region candidate which lacked an available candidate, Jennifer accepted. Again, backpacking her shyness, Jennifer courageously knocked on every possible door in the campaign. The result, victory, the youngest woman to become as member of the House of Commons in Ottawa.

New challenges faced the rookie MP. Jennifer soared. The timid young woman, worked in many ministries learning the ropes of committee work. She honed the skills learned there, and was soon recognized as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. When she entered a committee meeting, the room went on high alert as she crossed the threshold of the doorway.

Jennifer did committee work for years, learning more and more about being an MP, the gamut of the political attributes much needed to navigate the turbulent and unpredictable waters of federal politics. While many politicians in Ottawa schmooze at the endless wine and cheese gatherings, Jennifer eschewed the role of social butterfly, polishing her political skills in endless committee work. All this served her well. The party took advantage of those ever-increasing skills and moved her through committees in many ministries, Finance, National Security, Health, and Public Safety.

Jennifer’s parliamentary service years went through bumpy, even violent turbulence: the craziness of the trucker convoy in Ottawa, Covid, social media disruptions and online harassment.

In 2025, Jennifer sat down and did a career reassessment. She concluded she had achieved all that she wanted to achieve as a member of the House of Commons. She made the decision not to run in the next election.

With so many skills, extensive experience in committee work, long periods of work in National Security and cyber security, it made sense that Jennifer was attracted to cyber security in the civilian work. She accepted a job work a bank.

Life changed significantly for Jennifer upon leaving Ottawa. She had to learn how to grocery shop; she enjoyed more relaxing evenings reading and TV watching and her phone finally went mute. She also had more time for introspection and assessing what she had learned in Ottawa and how to apply those learned skills. Jennifer has taken control of her timidity, managing it excellently, able to handle the toughest questions with tact, diplomacy and intelligent consideration.

Today, Jennifer enjoys the challenges of her new security career, away from the tensions and entanglements of Ottawa’s political world. She is more relaxed and laid back as her new life has more calm and serenity in it than before. Her easy smiles and honest laughter confirm she is very happy in her new life as a commoner rather than a House of Commoner.

And as Jennifer says, when she’s gone, she would like her life to be marked this way: