Product Code Database
Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau (; February 23, 1949 – June 4, 2025) was a Canadian Armed Forces officer, astronaut and politician. Garneau served as a naval officer before being selected as an astronaut as part of the 1983 NRC Group. He became the first Canadian in space on October 5, 1984, and flew on three Space Shuttle missions. From 2001 to 2005, Garneau was president of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Garneau entered politics and was elected to the House of Commons in 2008, serving as a Montreal-area member of Parliament (MP) until 2023. A member of the Liberal Party, Garneau served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from January to October in 2021 and as Minister of Transport from 2015 to 2021.
Born in Quebec City, Garneau joined the Canadian Armed Forces, graduating with a bachelor's degree in engineering physics from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1970, and serving with Maritime Command (now known as the Royal Canadian Navy) as a combat systems engineer. He earned a PhD in electrical engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in 1973. In 1983, Garneau was selected to be an astronaut. In 1984, he became the first Canadian in space as part of STS-41-G and served on two subsequent missions: STS-77 and STS-97. He was appointed executive vice-president of the CSA in February 2001, before becoming the agency's president in November. Garneau resigned from the CSA in 2005, and was elected to Parliament in 2008. The Liberal Party formed government following the 2015 election and Garneau was appointed to Cabinet. After serving as transport minister and foreign affairs minister, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not appoint Garneau to another portfolio after a Cabinet shuffle following the 2021 election. In 2023, Garneau retired from politics.
In 1973, he received a PhD in electrical engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, England. His thesis was titled "The Perception of Facial Images". The Photofit analogue computer was used by him to discriminate facial features. In 1974, Garneau served as a naval combat systems engineer aboard .
From 1982 to 1983, he attended the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College in Toronto. While there, he was promoted to the rank of commander and was transferred to Ottawa in 1983. In January 1986, he was promoted to captain. Garneau retired from the Canadian Forces in 1989.
Garneau's first spaceflight was aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, on the STS-41-G mission, from October 5 to 13, 1984. He was a payload specialist. He was promoted to the rank of Navy Captain in 1986, and left the Canadian Forces 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 logged 677 hours in space.
On February 1, 2001, Garneau was appointed executive vice-president of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). On September 28, 2001, the government announced his appointment as president of the CSA, replacing in that position on November 22, 2001. Garneau resigned from the Canadian Space Agency on November 28, 2005.
On November 28, 2012, Garneau announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Liberal Party to be decided in April 2013. On March 13, 2013, Garneau formally withdrew his bid for the party leadership. On November 4, 2015, Garneau was appointed Minister of Transport in the 29th Canadian Ministry of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He became Minister of Foreign Affairs on January 12, 2021, after a cabinet reshuffle.
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. Dion instead appointed Jocelyn Coulon as the party's candidate, who 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. 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.
On November 21, 2012, Garneau was named his party's natural resources critic after David McGuinty resigned the post.
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 front-runner 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.
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 March 13, 2013, Garneau announced his withdrawal from the race, and threw his support to front-runner Justin Trudeau. 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.
In March 2019, after days of initial refusal to take actions following the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, Garneau who had even gone so far as to say on March 11 that he would board a 737 MAX 8 "without hesitation" as an apparent show of support for the Boeing Company, finally agreed on March 13 to ground and prohibit all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft from flying in Canadian airspace. The Trump administration followed suit later that day. This stood in contrast to the ministry's previous stance, where Garneau insisted the plane was safe to fly, thus making Canada one of the only two nations still flying a substantial number of Boeing 737 MAX planes at the time.
Garneau then served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from January 12, 2021, until October 26, 2021. On January 12, 2021, following the resignation of Navdeep Bains as minister of innovation, science and industry, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled the Cabinet, with Garneau becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs and Omar Alghabra taking his place at Transport. Garneau was described as one of the most qualified and capable members of Cabinet.
On March 8, 2023, Garneau announced that he would resign his seat and retire from politics. He gave his farewell speech in the House of Commons the same day.
The by-election to replace him in parliament occurred June 19, 2023.
Liberal Anna Gainey succeeded him, with almost as big a majority of votes as Garneau had won previously.
Early in 2025, Garneau was diagnosed with both lymphoma and leukemia.
In the final weeks of his life, he was a patient at McGill University Health Centre's Glen Site, in Montreal. His family announced he lost his battle with cancer, and died in Montreal on June 4, 2025, at the age of 76.
After the announcement, members of the Canadian House of Commons stood for a moment of silence to remember their recent colleague.
His first wife and mother to two of his children, Jacqueline Brown, predeceased him by suicide in 1987, shortly after the couple separated.
He is survived by his second wife, Pam Garneau, and four children, Yves, Simone, George, and Adrien.
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 is honoured with two high schools named after him, Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in Toronto Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Ontario and École secondaire publique Marc-Garneau in Trenton, Ontario.
Garneau was the Honorary Captain of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets. In addition, no 599 Royal Canadian Air Cadets squadron is named in his honour.
Garneau was awarded the Key to the City of Ottawa from Marion Dewar the Mayor of Ottawa on December 10, 1984.
He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1992.
|-
44th Parliament
Following the cabinet shuffle stemming from the election in October 2021, Garneau was dropped from Cabinet on October 26, despite being re-elected to his seat in the House. Some speculated that Garneau did not remain in cabinet due to his age, being sacrificed in the name of gender parity, and that he reportedly refused to be subservient to the Prime Minister's Office.
Retirement and death
In retirement, Garneau continued to advocate for the advantages of human spaceflight in building space infrastructure for monitoring the planet and for communications. In autumn 2024, Garneau's autobiography, A Most Extraordinary Ride: Space, Politics and the Pursuit of a Canadian Dream was published in Canada.
Awards and honours
Notes
Honorary degrees
Electoral record
See also
Sources
(2025). 9780771016219, Signal/McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 9780771016219
External links
Categories: 1949 Births, 2025 Deaths, 21st-century Members Of The House Of Commons Of Canada, Alumni Of Imperial College London, Astronaut-politicians, Canadian Astronauts, Canadian Roman Catholics, Chancellors Of Carleton University, Companions Of The Order Of Canada, Deaths From Cancer In Quebec, Liberal Party Of Canada Mps, Members Of The 29th Canadian Ministry, Members Of The House Of Commons Of Canada From Quebec, Members Of The King's Privy Council For Canada, Ministers Of Foreign Affairs Of Canada, Ministers Of Transport Of Canada, People From Westmount, Quebec, Politicians From Quebec City, Presidents Of The Canadian Space Agency, Royal Canadian Navy Officers, Royal Military College Of Canada Alumni, Royal Military College Saint-jean People, Space Shuttle Program Astronauts, Systems Engineers
|
|
