Marc Garneau

Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau, C.C., CD, Ph.D., F.C.A.S.I., MP (born February 23, 1949) is a Canadian politician, retired military officer, former astronaut, and engineer. He is currently the Member of Parliament for the riding of Westmount—Ville-Marie. On November 28, 2012, Garneau announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada to be decided in April 2013. On March 13, 2013, Dr. Garneau formally withdrew his bid for the Party leadership. Garneau was the first Canadian in outer space taking part in three flights aboard NASA Space shuttles. He was the president of the Canadian Space Agency from 2001 to 2006, and in 2003 was installed as the ninth Chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa.

In the 2006 federal election, he unsuccessfully sought a seat in the Canadian House of Commons in the riding of Vaudreuil-Soulanges. Two years later he was elected in the riding of Westmount—Ville-Marie in downtown Montreal, winning by over 9000 votes. He was re-elected to the House of Commons in the 2011 federal election by 642 votes. In November 2012, Garneau announced that he intends to seek the leadership of the federal Liberal Party. He dropped out of the race on March 13, 2013, to support Justin Trudeau.

Early life and career
Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau was born on February 23, 1949, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. He attended primary and secondary schools in Quebec City and Saint-Jean. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1970, and in 1973 received a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, England. From 1982 to 1983, he attended the Canadian Forces College in Toronto.

In 1974, Garneau began his career in the Royal Canadian Navy as a Navy combat systems engineer on HMCS Algonquin. He was promoted to Commander in 1982 while at Staff College and was transferred to Ottawa in 1983. In January 1986, he was promoted to Naval Captain and retired from the Navy in 1989.

Career with the Canadian Space Agency
Garneau was one of the first Canadian Astronauts and he became the first Canadian in outer space in October 1984. In 1984, he was seconded to the new Canadian Astronaut Program (CAP), one of six chosen from over 4,000 applicants. He flew on the shuttle Challenger, STS-41-G from October 5 to 13, 1984, as payload specialist. He was promoted to Captain in 1986, and left the Navy in 1989, to become deputy director of the CAP. In 1992-93, he underwent further training to become a mission specialist. He worked as CAPCOM for a number of shuttle flights and was on two further flights himself - STS-77 (May 19 to 29, 1996) and STS-97 (to the ISS, November 30 to December 11, 2000). He has logged over 677 hours in space.

In February 2001, he was appointed executive vice-president of the Canadian Space Agency, and became its president on November 22, 2001.

Political career
Garneau resigned as President of the Canadian Space Agency to run for the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2006 federal election in the riding of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, which was represented by Meili Faille of the Bloc Québécois. The Liberal Party's support dropped off considerably in Quebec after the Sponsorship scandal and though considered a star candidate Garneau lost to Faille by over nine thousand votes.

In the 2006 Liberal Party leadership election Garneau announced his support for perceived front-runner Michael Ignatieff, who lost to Stéphane Dion on the final ballot. With the resignation of Liberal MP Jean Lapierre in 2007, Garneau expressed interest in being the party's candidate in Lapierre's former riding of Outremont. Despite his interest in being the Liberal candidate in Outremont, Dion appointed Jocelyn Coulon as the party's candidate for the by-election. Coulon went on to be defeated by the New Democratic Party's Thomas Mulcair in the by-election.

In May 2007, Garneau filed nomination papers to be the party's candidate in Westmount—Ville-Marie, after former Liberal Party Deputy Leader Lucienne Robillard announced she would not be seeking re-election. However, a week after filing his nomination papers Dion announced that he had hand-picked a candidate for the riding. Garneau later withdrew his nomination papers and announced he no longer had an interest in politics. In October 2007, Garneau and Dion held a joint news conference where they announced that Garneau would be the Liberal Party candidate in Westmount—Ville-Marie. Garneau stated he changed his mind about running for politics after meeting with Dion. Robillard announced her resignation as Member of Parliament in January and a by-election was later scheduled for September 8, 2008. However, the by-election was cancelled during the campaign when Prime Minister Stephen Harper called a general election for October 14, 2008. Though some pundits predicted a close race between Garneau and NDP candidate Anne Lagacé-Dowson, Garneau went on to win the riding by over 9,000 votes.

Garneau was narrowly reelected in the 2011 election where he beat New Democratic Party candidate Joanne Corbeil. He now serves as Liberal Party House Leader. He was a candidate for interim leadership of the Liberal Party, but was ultimately defeated by Bob Rae. Garneau announced later that year that he was considering a bid for the permanent leadership of the party. In the summer of 2012, he announced that he was looking for a "dream team" to run his leadership bid and that he would only run if he could find the right people.

On November 21, 2012, Garneau was named his party's Natural Resources critic after David McGuinty resigned the post after saying that Conservative members of Parliament from Alberta "really should go back to Alberta" and run for the Alberta legislature or municipal office if they were not willing to adopt a national outlook with regards to energy. On January 30, 2013, Garneau was replaced as Natural Resources critic by Ted Hsu. Garneau had been serving in the position on an interim basis

On September 18, 2013, Garneau was named co-chair of the Liberal International Affairs Council of Advisors, providing advice on foreign and defence issues to Liberal Party of Canada leader Justin Trudeau.

Leadership
On November 28, 2012, Garneau announced his bid for the leadership of the Liberal Party, placing a heavy focus on the economy. While fellow leadership candidate Justin Trudeau was widely seen as the frontrunner in the race, Garneau was thought to be his main challenger among the candidates. With his entrance into the leadership race he resigned his post as Liberal House Leader, while remaining the party's critic for Natural Resources.

At the press conference announcing his candidacy Garneau ruled out any form of co-operation with the Green Party or New Democratic Party to help defeat the Conservative Party in the next election, which was proposed by leadership candidate Joyce Murray.

Garneau took an aggressive stand against perceived frontrunner Justin Trudeau, arguing that Trudeau had not released enough substantial positions to be elected leader and suggesting unnamed previous Liberal Leaders had similarly not been vetted, and that the results had been disastrous.

On 13 March 2013 Garneau announced his withdrawal from the race, and threw his support to front-runner Justin Trudeau.

Awards and honours
Garneau was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1984 in recognition of his role as the first Canadian astronaut. He was promoted the rank of Companion within the order in 2003 for his extensive work with Canada's space program.

He was awarded the Canadian Forces Decoration for 12 years of honourable service with the Canadian Forces.

He is honoured with a high school named after him, Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in Toronto and É.S.P. Marc-Garneau in Trenton, Ontario.

Garneau is the Honorary Captain of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets. In addition, no 599 Royal Canadian Air Cadets squadron is named in his honour.

Books

 * 4237 Dr. Adrian Preston & Peter Dennis (Edited) "Swords and Covenants" Rowman And Littlefield, London. Croom Helm. 1976.
 * H16511 Dr. Richard Arthur Preston "Canada's RMC - A History of Royal Military College" Second Edition 1982
 * H1877 R. Guy C. Smith (editor) "As You Were! Ex-Cadets Remember". In 2 Volumes. Volume I: 1876-1918. Volume II: 1919-1984. RMC. Kingston, Ontario. The R.M.C. Club of Canada. 1984