1. Marc Garneau was an MP in Westmount, Montreal for 15 years.
47 Facts About Marc Garneau
1. 2.
Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau was born on February 23,1949, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
3.
Marc Garneau attended primary and secondary schools in Quebec City and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
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Marc Garneau graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1970 with a bachelor of science in engineering physics and began his career in the Canadian Forces Maritime Command.
5.
Marc Garneau's thesis was entitled "The Perception of Facial Images".
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Marc Garneau was one of six first Canadian Astronauts and he became the first Canadian in outer space on October 5,1984.
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Marc Garneau flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger, STS-41-G from October 5 to 13,1984, as payload specialist.
8.
Marc Garneau was promoted to captain in 1986, and left the Canadian Forces in 1989, to become deputy director of the CAP.
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Marc Garneau worked as CAPCOM for a number of shuttle flights and was on two further flights himself: STS-77 and STS-97.
10.
On February 1,2001, Marc Garneau was appointed executive vice-president of the Canadian Space Agency.
11.
Marc Garneau was re-elected to the House of Commons in the 2011 federal election by 642 votes, and in the 2015 federal election with a majority of over 18,000.
12.
On November 28,2012, Marc Garneau announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Liberal Party to be decided in April 2013.
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On March 13,2013, Garneau formally withdrew his bid for the party leadership.
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On November 4,2015, Marc Garneau was appointed as Minister of Transport in the 29th Canadian Ministry.
15.
Marc Garneau became Minister of Foreign Affairs on January 12,2021 after a cabinet reshuffle.
16.
The Liberal Party's support dropped off considerably in Quebec after the Sponsorship scandal and though considered a star candidate, Marc Garneau lost to Faille by over nine thousand votes.
17.
Marc Garneau later withdrew his nomination papers and announced he no longer had an interest in politics.
18.
Marc Garneau was a member of the Industry, Science and Technology committee of the 40th Parliament.
19.
Marc Garneau was narrowly re-elected in the 2011 election where he beat New Democratic Party candidate Joanne Corbeil.
20.
Marc Garneau was Liberal House leader and served from 2013 as Liberal foreign affairs critic.
21.
Marc Garneau was a candidate for interim leadership of the Liberal Party, but was ultimately defeated by Bob Rae.
22.
Marc Garneau announced later that year that he was considering a bid for the permanent leadership of the party.
23.
On November 21,2012, Marc Garneau was named his party's natural resources critic after David McGuinty resigned the post.
24.
On November 28,2012, Marc Garneau announced his bid for the leadership of the Liberal Party, placing a heavy focus on the economy.
25.
At the press conference announcing his candidacy Marc 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.
26.
On January 30,2013, Marc Garneau was replaced as natural resources critic by Ted Hsu.
27.
Marc Garneau had been serving in the position on an interim basis.
28.
On March 13,2013 Garneau announced his withdrawal from the race, and threw his support to front-runner Justin Trudeau.
29.
On September 18,2013, Marc 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.
30.
Two weeks later, on November 4,2015, Marc Garneau was appointed the minister of transport by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
31.
In May 2017, Marc Garneau introduced an airline passenger bill of rights to standardize how passengers can be treated by airlines which operate any flights in and out of Canada.
32.
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 11 March that he would board 737 MAX 8 "without hesitation" as an apparent show of support for the Boeing Company, finally agreed on 13 March to ground and prohibit all Boeing 737 Max aircraft from flying in Canadian airspace.
33.
Marc Garneau continued to serve as Minister of Transport after the elections to the 43rd Parliament held in October 2019.
34.
Marc Garneau was at Transport for the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, and thus he was responsible to enforce the Quarantine Act as lieutenant to the Minister of Health Patty Hajdu; during this time he made many decisions that would affect the lives of travellers in co-ordination with Hadju.
35.
Marc Garneau then served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from January 12,2021 until October 26,2021.
36.
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 Marc Garneau becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs and Omar Alghabra taking his place at Transport.
37.
Marc Garneau was described as one of the most qualified and capable members of Cabinet.
38.
Some have speculated that Marc 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.
39.
On March 8,2023, Garneau announced that he would resign his seat and retire from politics.
40.
Marc Garneau gave his farewell speech in the House of Commons the same day.
41.
Liberal Anna Gainey succeeded him, with almost as big a majority of votes as Marc Garneau had won previously.
42.
Marc Garneau was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1984 in recognition of his role as the first Canadian astronaut.
43.
Marc Garneau was promoted the rank of Companion within the order in 2003 for his extensive work with Canada's space program.
44.
Marc Garneau was awarded the Canadian Forces' Decoration for 12 years of honourable service with the Canadian Forces.
45.
Marc Garneau is the Honorary Captain of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets.
46.
Marc Garneau was awarded the Key to the City of Ottawa from Marion Dewar the Mayor of Ottawa on December 10,1984.
47.
Marc Garneau was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1992.