Marc Garneau to leave politics after 15-year career

Liberal MP Marc Garneau on Parliament Hill March 6, 2023 in Ottawa.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail

Marc Garneau, the first Canadian to go to space, is leaving politics, departing Ottawa after 15 years spent serving in opposition, then in cabinet as transport and foreign affairs minister, and lastly as a backbencher.

He also once challenged Justin Trudeau for the leadership of the federal Liberals, but pulled out before the decision went to party members in 2013 because he realized he could not win.

Earlier this week, Mr. Garneau went to see the Prime Minister to announce his exit. He was scheduled to break the news to the Liberal caucus meeting on Wednesday. He was hoping to deliver a goodbye speech to the Commons in the afternoon.

And then the first Canadian in space was planning to take the train home to Montreal.

In the hour before he went to see Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Garneau said at his MP’s office in Ottawa’s Confederation Building that he will return to pack up that office, and he will send in the paperwork to quit his Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount seat.

He’s done.

His exit, he said, was sealed by an appeal from his wife and children last fall. “They would like me to be at home more often, to put it bluntly,” Mr. Garneau said in the interview. “I feel it’s the right time.”

It marks the end of the political mission of one of Canada’s most unlikely MPs – a retired naval officer who spent about 28 days in space on three space-shuttle missions between 1984 and 2000. On Earth, he served as the Canadian Space Agency president before winning his Montreal-area seat in 2008. After being a civil servant, he wanted a hand in making decisions, he says.

He was appointed to cabinet when the Liberals won office in 2015, then left out of cabinet when the party was re-elected in 2021. He finished his last years as a backbencher.

Mr. Garneau swatted away the storylines likely to emerge about his departure. The pundits would be wrong to suggest he is getting out before the challenging next election the Liberals will face after about a decade in office, he said.

“I would say to those folks that there is only one reason why I am leaving and that is because I made a promise to my family last fall that I would be home more often since I deferred it from 2019,” he said. “It’s nothing more than that. It’s simply time for me to go.” Mr. Garneau added that he is 74.

He has four children, three living in Montreal, as well as three grandchildren. He is mindful of the price his family has paid for a career path that included a lot of travel in orbit and on Earth as well as varied moves needed for military, space and other commitments.

Mr. Garneau also said he isn’t departing over lingering pique prompted by Mr. Trudeau dropping him from cabinet after the 2021 election when Mr. Garneau assumed he would be back in the inner circle.

“I have to deal with reality, and my reality is what’s unfolded in the last year and a half. I am not in cabinet and the Prime Minister does not owe me an explanation,” he said. “You take the cards that are dealt to you, and I’ve had some incredible cards dealt to me in my life.”

He said he has enjoyed his time outside cabinet, chairing committees such as the standing committee on Indigenous and northern affairs. He has also been a member of the special joint committee on medical assistance in dying.

“It has been meaningful to me because I don’t think I have ever grappled with something quite as profoundly human and important, potentially, to every single citizen of the country.”

He says he has no professional plans. All he has on his slate is continued work on his memoirs. “It’s going well. At some point, I will need to approach a publisher and see if they are interested.”

Mr. Garneau said he leaves with one key regret. He was never able to successfully make the case for Canada to have a national children’s commissioner akin to the commissioners for privacy and ethics to provide a voice for children.

“Everybody has always said nice things about, ‘Yeah. That sounds good,’ and all that, but it’s just never happened.’ And I tried, but it just didn’t work.” He ruled out asking Mr. Trudeau about the issue at their final meeting.

He said he expects Mr. Trudeau will win the next election. “A lot of people have underestimated him,” he said. “He is a man of enormous inner strength.”

When asked about advice to the government on managing Quebec files, Mr. Garneau sidestepped the question.

“I have my ideas, but at this point, I am leaving and I am no longer in the business of working with other colleagues and giving my advice. I have done my bit, and now it’s time to go.”