Canada's first person in space, Marc Garneau — and a privileged journalist who knew him

Canada lost a special citizen this week. Marc Garneau, Canada's first astronaut, passed away at the age of 76. I have had the privilege of knowing Marc for almost 40 years.

Marc became a Canadian icon when he boarded the space shuttle Challenger in 1984, placing Canada onto the short list of countries with a human space program.

It was the first of three flights into space for Marc. One of his jobs was using the Canadarm to help build the International Space Station.

He also had a career beforehand as an officer with the Canadian Navy, and two more careers afterwards, as head of the Canadian Space Agency from 2001 to 2005, and as an member of Parliament and cabinet minister until he retired in 2023. His life is a story of continually re-inventing himself and pulling it all off with style.

I was reporting on Marc's space flights as they happened but didn't meet him personally until 1986 at an unusual event called "Invent an Alien." This was a Canada-wide challenge for Grade 4, 5 and 6 students to design a creature that could live on one of the worlds in our solar system.

Operated like a science fair, the students had to build a model creature and explain its special abilities to survive in an alien environment. The finals were held at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, and Marc was one of our judges. 

It was there that I first encountered his calm demeanor, compassion and sensitivity as he interacted with the young students, listening to their explanations of how their creature could survive on Mars or an ice moon of the giant planets. Despite his fame, he was patient, totally engaged and provided encouragement to the nervous budding scientists.

In 2005, Marc presented me with an honorary doctorate when he was chancellor of Carleton University. Being handed a diploma by an astronaut was a special thrill for this long-time space geek.

Over the years, when we crossed paths at science events or conferences, or when he was a guest on Quirks & Quarks, I was impressed at each encounter by his ability to clearly focus on whatever task was before him and carry it out with humour and warmth. 

The last time I saw him was November 2024, when he came to Victoria to launch his memoir, A Most Extraordinary Ride. It is worth a read if you want to know his remarkable full life story.

During my interview with him at a local bookstore, before a packed audience, I discovered many aspects of his life beyond an astronaut career, including how he had a bad boy side to him in his youth.

He told the story that as a new cadet aboard the Canadian Naval ship HMCS Beacon Hill, he and two accomplices asked to go ashore while the ship was at anchor. Their request was denied, so they hatched a poorly thought out plan to pack their clothing in plastic bags, don swimsuits and slide down the anchor chain after dark to swim to shore.

They almost got away with it, but the ship's radar picked up strange objects moving in the water, which were then targeted by searchlights. The escapees were picked up, returned to the ship, and heavily reprimanded for disobeying a direct order.

Marc said the event almost got him kicked out of the navy, but he stuck with it, and eventually became a naval commander — and loved every minute of it.

Marc also confirmed a story I heard back in the '80s during his first flight to space.

When mission control made a wake-up call to the crew, Marc took the intercom and replied, "We're sorry, there is no one here to take your call, but if you leave your number we will get back to you." The trick was he did it in French, so only the Canadians on the ground got the joke and broke out in laughter, while the Americans had no idea what was going on.

"The crew set me up for that," he explained.

What's remarkable about Marc's history is how each of his careers was entirely different.

No matter the context, he approached each challenge with clear focus, determination, high standards — and a warm personality and dry sense of humour.

During the book launch, I asked him how he dealt with the transition of being a national hero to a politician who is always under attack. He replied with a grin: "Yeah, when I was an astronaut, everyone liked me."

In fact, everyone did like him. That warm personality underlined everything he accomplished, and he accomplished a lot.

Canada mourns the loss of Marc Garneau.