Interviewing Canada's first astronaut
Writing life: 67
Saturday, October 5, 2024 was the 40th anniversary of Marc Garneau’s first ride on the space shuttle into space and Earth orbit. He ventured beyond our realm three times in his sixteen year career as a NASA astronaut, culminating in his final mission in 2000 when he helped assemble the International Space Station. For those of you, dear readers, who are not Canadian, I can tell you that Marc Garneau is famous in his home country.
I spent a good chunk of the afternoon, on the 40th anniversary of his first space flight, interviewing him on stage in Burlington, Ontario, with a rapt audience of 300, as he launched—pun intended—his new memoir, A Most Extraordinary Ride. The book recounts his life in space and in politics where he served as a Member of Parliament, and senior Cabinet Minister.
And here’s a recent interview with Marc on CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live about the book and his life:
A bit of context…
I first met Marc Garneau about a dozen years ago just after I had finished the manuscript for my third novel, Up and Down. It tells the story of a PR program to rekindle public interest in the space program that included a Citizen Astronaut Lottery where one American and one Canadian, drawn at random from millions of entries, would have the chance to ride the shuttle into orbit and spend a week on the International Space station. I’ve already written in an earlier post about this novel and how Canada’s first astronaut came to be involved, but I’ll just remind you here about Marc Garneau’s role.
Back then, I reached out to Marc Garneau, then a Liberal Member of Parliament, in the hopes that he might be prepared to read the manuscript to ensure I hadn’t messed up any of the space science in the story, and then perhaps give me a positive blurb to put on the front cover. It was thrilling when he agreed. I won’t retell the whole story (check out my earlier post for the details), just some of the highlights.
After Marc kindly read the manuscript, his office called me and said that “Dr. Garneau would like to meet with you.” I was nervous but flew to Ottawa and met with him in his Centre Block office on Parliament Hill, one evening. We shook hands and he reached into his desk drawer and pulled out the manuscript I had sent him. To my horror, I saw dozens and dozens of yellow Post-it notes sticking out of the manuscript. Surely I exaggerate. Nope.
As it turned out, I had managed to capture all of the space shuttle mission details correctly save for a few very minor discrepancies. So what were all the Post-it notes? Well, Marc had gone above and beyond the call and had not only read my manuscript, he had proofread it! And he somehow caught more than 50 little problems, from typos to missing small words (a problem I have when writing). My McClelland & Stewart editor, my proofreader, and I had all missed them. The lesson I earned that evening in March of 2012 was that if you want a thorough job done, ask an astronaut!
Marc very kindly followed up a few days later with this lovely blurb, part of which graced the front cover of the first edition.
After serving in Parliament, Marc Garneau went on to throw his hat into the ring for the Leadership of the Liberal Party. He was an early frontrunner, but Justin Trudeau ultimately took the crown. I have fond memories of being the speaker at a Marc Garneau rally in Hamilton back in 2013. He went on to a stellar career in the House of Commons and around the Cabinet table, first as Minister of Transport, and then as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He retired from the government in 2023 to write this wonderful memoir.
Back to October 5, 2024…
I’d been asked to interview Marc on stage for the very first event of his book tour. I was honoured. We met in the green room for half an hour or so before the event just to catch up with one another and to let the 300 eager members of audience find their seats. Over the preceding few days, I’d read and loved his memoir. He puts the reader right there in the shuttle with him. I couldn’t put it down.
While I’ve been a space nut since I was nine years old, there’s something for every reader in A Most Extraordinary Ride. Coming up with questions was easy. Keeping our discussion to 45 minutes was much harder! I could have gone on all afternoon listening to his fascinating stories about his life in space and in politics.
The 300 people in the audience were hanging on his every word, as was I. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. After the event, the line to Marc’s signing table was long and serpentine. I strongly recommend picking up A Most Extraordinary Ride. It easily lives up to its title.
Wrapping up…
Thanks for checking this out. Here’s hoping you’ll consider subscribing. It’s free and easy, and you’ll never miss a biweekly Sunday morning post. I’m experimenting with occasionally providing a few upcoming speaking gigs at the end of posts. Let me know if it’s helpful.
Upcoming speaking gigs…
Friday, October 25, 2024, 6:00 p.m.: Keynote speaker at the Leaside Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Toronto.
Sunday, October 27, 2024, 10:00 a.m.: Leading a humour writing workshop with Rod Carley as part of the Book Drunkard Festival in Uxbridge, Ontario.
Sunday, October 27, 2024, 2:00 p.m.: Interviewing Rod Carley on stage about this new novel, Ruff, as part of the Book Drunkard Festival, in Uxbridge, Ontario.
Thursday, October 31, 8:00 p.m.: Virtual guest lecture to a Comedy/Humour Writing class at the University of Victoria, British Columbia.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024, 6:30 p.m.: Meeting with a book club at Toronto Public Library’s Mt. Pleasant Branch to discuss A New Season, Toronto.
Tuesday, November 12, 2024, 7:00 p.m.: Appearing at the Heart of the Story Authors Series talking about A New Season, in Port Perry, Ontario.
Wednesday, November 28, 2024, 7:00 p.m.: A book talk on A New Season for the Niagara on the Lake Public LIbrary’s Wine and Words Author Series, Caroline Cellars, Niagara on the Lake, Ontario.
Wednesday, December 4, 2024, 6:30 p.m.: A talk at the Clarence-Rockland Public Library, Rockland, Ontario, near Ottawa.
Friday, December 6, 2024, 10:00 a.m.: Meeting with a book club to discuss Up and Down, Guelph, Ontario.
A full listing of my speaking engagements can be found here, on my website.
So happy for you Terry that you had the opportunity to interview Marc Garneau. Although I appreciate the work that he did on behalf of Canadians I was surprised at the comments he made about Justin Trudeau in his book. He certainly had the right to, but given our alternative opposition party so gung ho on forming the next government I was disheartened. I just finished listening to a current CBC interview of his on the CBC before I wrote this comment, and he gives the current government some sound advice. I also read another recent article, and yes, I agree with Marc Garneau's comments, and perhaps a wake up call to the PM. According to the article only the PM's childhood friends in cabinet had access to him. I suspect being a child of a PM has made him very guarded in his life, and not prone to trust. But I thank Mr Garneau on the insight.
Always interesting stories Terry. And yes Marc Garneau made a difference on his many journeys and adventures. Will try to make it to "Dockland" on December 4th to hear what you may have to say that evening.