Marc Garneau was the first Canadian in space — but what he achieved on Earth is worth remembering, too

Hamilton Spectator

06-06-2025

If Marc Garneau wasn't the beau ideal of Canadian character, accomplishment and aspiration, then he was surely on the short list.
Canada's first astronaut in space, who died on Wednesday at 76 after a short illness, made his name travelling to the heavens. But his was a life that meant so much more, one shot through with examples of courage, adventure, service and resilience here on Earth.
'I didn't set out to be an astronaut, but that's what I became,' Garneau wrote in his 2024 memoir, A Most Extraordinary Ride. 'I also didn't set out to be a politician, but that also happened.'
What he did set out to do 'was to live to the fullest of my capabilities rather than shrink from the challenges life threw at me, to stay curious, and to carry myself with dignity.'
Garneau also wrote about the odd burst of youthful hell-raising. 'I was immature and lacked judgment,' he later recalled. 'Fortunately, it worked out, and I was able to learn from those experiences.'
The son of a francophone infantry officer from Quebec City and an anglo-Canadian nurse from Sussex, New Brunswick, Garneau considered himself a product of both of Canada's fabled two solitudes.
'I was half Quebecer and half Maritimer,' he wrote. 'I believe I get my passion and tendency to argue from my Quebec ancestry and my pragmatism and can-do attitude from the Maritimer in my DNA.'
Garneau joined the Royal Canadian Navy at 16, relishing the challenge of navigating vast spaces, relying on his wits.
'I like challenges; I like adventure,' he said last year. 'I'm willing to tolerate a certain amount of risk in my life. Failure does not throw me off, and I learned from failure.'
While serving in the navy, he read a newspaper ad from the National Research Council. It was looking for astronauts.
Garneau applied. In 1983, he was selected from more than 4,300 applicants to a class of six astronauts. A year later, he became the first Canadian to go to space, as a payload specialist on the NASA shuttle mission.
'I have often used the word euphoria to describe the moment I first saw Earth from space,' Garneau wrote. 'The view that greeted me left me not only breathless, but speechless. Words like incredible, amazing and extraordinary couldn't do justice to what I was seeing.'
He wanted NASA to be pleased with his work. And, he said, 'I wanted Canadians to be proud of me.'
That they were, and Garneau returned to Earth a national celebrity.
He left the astronaut corps after two more missions and became president of the Canadian Space Agency before being recruited into politics.
'The possibility of making decisions that would shape Canada's future appealed to me,' he wrote.
Although he lost his first bid for the House of Commons, in 2006, he won in 2008 and remained in office until his retirement, in 2023.
He sought the Liberal leadership in 2013 but dropped out of the race that Justin Trudeau eventually won. He would go on to serve as Trudeau's minister of transport and then foreign affairs.
Garneau had an edge, disagreeing with his leader on several aspects of foreign policy. He wished that the astronaut culture of honesty, openness, making no excuses and admitting promptly to error prevailed in politics.
When he was left out of Trudeau's cabinet in 2021, Garneau more or less masked his sense of betrayal. 'It felt like a punch in the gut,' he wrote — but he carried on.
Many of the tributes that have poured in since Garneau's wife, Pam, announced his passing have mentioned his fundamental virtues: humility, modesty, thoughtfulness, grace, courage, hopefulness, decency.
Bob Rae, Canada's ambassador to the United Nations and one of Garneau's former colleagues, called him an 'old-fashioned, upfront guy, wise, incredibly hard-working, with deep humility and quiet sense of humour.'
Garneau said that when he sat down to write his memoir, 'I realized, my goodness, I did pack a lot in 75 years.'
Not least of all inspiring and making proud an entire country.