Marc Garneau was born in Quebec City in February of 1949. He has been married to Pamela Soame for 16 years. Together they have two children, Adrien and George, and have been residents of Westmount since 2001, where they enjoy an active life in the community. Marc also has two twins from a first marriage, Yves and Simone.
Marc was the President of the McGill Chamber Orchestra for four years and remains its Honourary President. He enjoys walking and cycling around Montreal to keep fit. He also has sailed across the Atlantic twice, in 1969 and 1970 – on a 59-foot yawl with twelve other crewmen!
EDUCATION
Marc’s education took place in Quebec, Ontario and England. He attended primary and secondary schools in Quebec City and Saint-Jean. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the Royal Military College of Kingston in 1970, and in 1973 received a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England. From 1982 to 1983, he attended the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College of Toronto.
Out of this world career: Representing Canada in Space
CAREER
Military Experience
Marc Garneau began his service to Canada as a Navy combat systems engineer on HMCS Algonquin from1974 to 1976. 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.
A Career in Space
Marc was one of six Canadian astronauts selected out of over four thousand candidates in December 1983. He was seconded to the Canadian Astronaut Program from the Department of National Defence in February 1984 to begin astronaut training. Marc made history by becoming the first Canadian Astronaut to fly in space as a payload specialist on Shuttle Mission 41-G, October 5-13, 1984. In 1989 Marc was named Deputy Director of the Canadian Astronaut Program, providing technical and program support in the preparation of experiments to fly during future Canadian missions.
Marc has had such a profound influence on fans of space discovery that he even had a spaceship named after him, the USS Garneau, in the popular Star Trek series of novels.
NASA
Marc reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. He completed a one-year training program until he became qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. He initially worked on technical issues for the Astronaut Office Robotics Integration Team, and subsequently served as Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) in Mission Control during Shuttle flights. With three space flights (STS-41G in 1984, STS-77 in 1996 and STS-97 in 2000), Marc Garneau has logged over 677 hours in space.
Canadian Space Agency
In February 2001, Marc Garneau was appointed Executive Vice President of the Canadian Space Agency. He was subsequently appointed President of the same Agency on November 22, 2001 before leaving in 2005 to pursue a career in politics.
A life dedicated to serving his country
Marc Garneau has served his country his entire professional career, beginning with the Canadian Navy and then as an astronaut and President of the Canadian Space Agency , and now in political life. In August 2003, Marc was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honour. He is also honoured with two high schools named after him, Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in Toronto and École Secondaire Marc Garneau in Trenton, Ontario.
The Liberal Party of Canada
Garneau resigned from the Canadian Space Agency to run under the Liberal banner in Vaudreuil–Soulanges in 2006. Afterwards he remained very involved in politics and played a leading role in the Liberal Renewal Commission by drafting its Science and Technology position paper. He also helped draft a number of resolutions aimed at clarifying the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, the resolution of fiscal unbalance and the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.
In October 2008 Marc Garneau was elected as the Member of Parliament for Westmount—Ville-Marie and, in his first mandate, served as the Liberal critic for Industry, Science and Technology as well as the Leader’s representative for Québec. He was re-elected in Westmount—Ville-Marie in May 2011 and currently serves as House Leader for the Liberal Party in the House of Commons.
Since first being elected in 2008, Marc has been hard at work in Ottawa. He meets frequently with individual citizens and associations to take into account their concerns and to answer their questions so that he can more effectively represent the people of Westmount-Ville-Marie.
