Not just another political memoir: Marc Garneau looks back at a most extraordinary life

Marc Garneau was the first Canadian in space and later served as Transport Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Now semi-retired, the 75-year-old is looking back at what he calls A Most Extraordinary Ride in a new memoir.

A Most Extraordinary Ride: Space, Politics, and the Pursuit of a Canadian Dream has Garneau following in the footsteps of fellow former Trudeau cabinet ministers Jody Wilson-Raybould, Bill Morneau, and Jane Philpott, who put pen to paper before him. But Garneau insists his memoir isn’t just about politics.

“The political part of it is only about 20 per cent of my life,” he said. “I set out to write an autobiography, and equally important to me are not only my political life, but also my life in the space business, first as an astronaut, and then as president of the Canadian Space Agency.”

Garneau says his life changed forever in the summer of 1983 when he saw an ad in the paper looking for Canadian astronauts.

“I thought, ‘Wow, this would be an incredible adventure.’ I always liked adventure, and to be out there on the frontier of doing something so unique, I couldn’t help myself, and I thought, ‘Well, if I don’t send in my resume, I’m going to kick myself,'” he said.

“Lo and behold, six months later, I was chosen as one of the first six, and three months later, I was chosen to be the first to go.”

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John Ackermann sits down with Marc Garneau, author of A Most Extraordinary Ride

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In all, he spent eight days and 133 Earth orbits in space.

Like many of his generation, Garneau was inspired by NASA’s Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. He can still remember exactly where he was when it happened.

“I was in the English Channel in a sailboat and looking up at the moon and listening to the radio as Neil Armstrong brought the eagle in for a smooth landing in the Sea of Tranquility and marveled at that,” he said. “And perhaps [for] the engineer in me and the adventurer in me, that planted a seed, even though my chosen career was the Navy.”

As the first Canadian astronaut, Garneau still has much to say on the subject, including how private interests are pursuing so-called space tourism.

“Generally, I’m positive about it, because for innovation, for technological progress, and this is important if you believe in the importance of space, because in the old days, only governments invested in space, because businesses never saw any business case to be there. There was no profit to be done. It was just expensive, complex, and risky,” he said.

“So, the fact that it’s happening more and more now, I think, is generally a good thing.”

But he does have one caveat.

“It’s very important that we develop space because that means more spacecraft up there orbiting the Earth. [But] it has to be done in an orderly fashion. It has to be regulated because it can get pretty congested up there. And we also want to keep space as sort of neutral ground, much like we treat the continent of Antarctica here on Earth, and that requires nations to work together.”

After a time heading up the Canadian Space Agency, Garneau caught the political bug. He was first elected in 2008, first serving in Opposition, and then from 2015 to 2021 in the Trudeau cabinet.

But he admits he was never very close with the prime minister.

“We’re different personalities,” he said. “I’m a generation older than him, but it was a cordial relationship, not a close one. And there were occasions when I said to myself, I wish our relationship was closer, particularly when I was at Foreign Affairs, but as long as he trusted me, I could get on with my job. I’m a big boy.”

Marc Garneau was Transport Minister from 2015 to 2021, with various deadly plane crashes and train derailments happening on his watch.

“You have to, as the transport minister, meet with the relatives and friends of the victims, and that is a part of the job that you don’t anticipate when you’re named to it. You think you’re just going to deal with technical issues and policy and regulations, but no, you’re dealing with people, and that very much struck home for me, and I learned a great deal about the job in the process of talking to people.”

After five years at Transport, Garneau spent a turbulent nine months at Foreign Affairs with the U.S. military pullout from Afghanistan and the freeing of the two Michaels happening during his brief time in the ministry.

He admits he was more than caught off guard when he was shuffled out of cabinet shortly after the 2021 election.

“Yes, it was a gut punch. I felt blindsided,” he said. “I had run in the 2021 election with the expectation [that I would stay on] because the prime minister had not told me beforehand, ‘Look, Marc, you have a choice to make. If you get re-elected, I will be taking you out of cabinet.’ If he had told me, I would not have run in the 2021 election.”

Garneau was Canada’s fourth Foreign Affairs minister in five years, an experience he admits felt quite isolating. He says a lot of that had to do with the amount of power centered in the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Despite the fact that Prime Minister Trudeau said he would do things differently from Prime Minister Harper when he became the prime minister in 2015, including not having the Prime Minister’s Office act as a sort of barrier, he effectively did not change anything,” he said.

“Sometimes I wanted to make sure that a concern of mine would reach the prime minister, and I was never 100 per cent sure that it did, and in that respect, I’m critical of the PMO, as unfortunately, many of my fellow cabinet ministers are as well.”

Garneau also has some thoughts about what is happening inside the Liberal caucus these days.

“Well, there’s no question the Liberal Party is in a tough spot at the moment, and this is not unusual. After being in power for nine years, it happens to all governments,” Garneau said.

“What is unusual is that the Liberal Party has been at least 15 to 20 points behind [in the polls] for well over a year, which really speaks more strongly of the fact that Canadians are saying, well, it’s time for a change. So that’s a big challenge for the prime minister. He has to show that he can renew and freshen the party as a vision for the future. And that’s not an easy job. And what makes it more difficult, to be very frank about it, is that unless your caucus is 100 per cent behind you, you go to bed at night feeling, ‘Gosh, I wish my whole team was behind me.’ But if you sense that that’s not the case, that makes it even more difficult.”

Despite his flagging popularity, the prime minister intends to lead his party in the next election. But that’s not stopping certain people from expressing interest in the role.

“I did try it myself back in 2013, but, at that time, the overwhelming support was to have Justin Trudeau become the leader of the Liberal Party.”

So, would he return for another crack at the top job?

“The answer is no. I’m very happy with the 15 years I was in Parliament. I had the privilege of being a minister for six years, and it was very personally satisfying to serve Canadians and my country. But, you know, I’ve made the transition, and I’m very comfortable now in my new life as a semi-retired person,” he said.

“I made some big mistakes, especially early on in my life. My lesson, particularly to young people, is that, look, we all make mistakes. It’s not the end of the world. If you have a passion for something, go for it. Failure is not that big a deal. It’s not the end of your life. Life can be very, very exciting, and there are lots of possibilities, and it’s not always going to go in a straight line,” he said.

A Most Extraordinary Ride: Space, Politics, and the Pursuit of a Canadian Dream is available from Signal Books.

Marc Garneau will appear at Capilano University in North Vancouver for an event on Monday, Nov. 18.