Thomas Ahearn

Thomas Ahearn, PC (June 24 1855 – June 28 1938) was a Canadian inventor and businessman.

He was born in the Lebreton Flats area of Ottawa in 1855. He began work as a telegraph operator with the J.R. Booth Company, later becoming a manager in several early telephone companies in Ottawa, including the Bell Telephone Company office in Ottawa. In 1882, he founded the firm of Ahearn & Soper, electrical contractors, with Warren Soper. In the same year, Ahearn set up telephone service for Parliament Hill and government offices. Ahearn and Soper set up thousands of electric lights on the Parliament Buildings for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. Ahearn invented the electric cooking range in 1882, and, in 1892, was the first person to prepare a meal on an electric stove which he delivered to the Windsor Hotel in Ottawa.

He was founder and president of the Ottawa Electric Railway Company, which provided electric streetcar service in the town and had the first streetcars with electric heaters. This private operation was later taken over by OC Transpo. He was chairman of the Federal District Commission, the predecessor to the National Capital Commission. Ahearn personally funded most of the construction costs for the Champlain Bridge across the Ottawa River. He helped found a number of early Ottawa companies including the Ottawa Electric Company, which introduced electric streetlights to Ottawa and was the predecessor to Hydro Ottawa, the Ottawa Gas Company and the Ottawa Car Manufacturing Company, which manufactured streetcars. His son Frank would become the owner of the Ottawa Auditorium and the Ottawa Senators professional ice hockey team.

In 1927, Ahearn set up radio facilities across Canada to broadcast the Diamond Jubilee celebration of Canadian Confederation from the Ottawa Auditorium.

He was named to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada in 1928.