After an unsuccessful attempt to win the provincial Liberal nomination in a Lunenburg area riding in 1988,[3] O'Connor turned to municipal politics and was elected a town councilor in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia.[4]
She held the seat until resigning in 1993 to enter provincial politics.[4] In the 1993 election, she was elected MLA for Lunenburg, defeating the incumbent from Lunenburg Centre, Al Mosher by 273 votes.[5][6]
She served as a backbench member of John Savage's government. She was defeated by Progressive Conservative Michael Baker when she ran for re-election in the 1998 election. She was again nominated as the Liberal candidate in the riding for the 1999 election,[7] but was again defeated by Baker.[8] O'Connor returned to municipal politics in 2000, and served as a town councillor in Mahone Bay for 12 years, before being defeated in 2012.[4]