posted 11-30-2005 11:04 PM               

While his personnal motivations have not yet been made public, his ties to the Liberal Party are well known. The Liberal Party, in power for most of the last forty years, have been governing under a minority government since the last election, and has been defeated at the House of Commons by a coalition of opposition parties, forcing the upcoming election in January.

The previous Liberal government has been at the heart of a political scandal involving illicit financial contributions and kickback, from which this present administration is trying to recover.

At the present, the riding of Vaudreuil-Soulange, west of Montreal, is held by a pro-sovereingty-of-Québec member of the Bloc Quebecois Party. A majority of Quebec ridings have been represented by the Bloc for the last ten years, in line with the contemporary political tradition of Quebec which routinely sends sovereinist representatives to parliements of both Canada and Québec, while defeating referendums in favor of political separation from Canada.

This might be of interest for collectors, for there will soon be 4 by 4 posters of mr. Garneau all over his riding!

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François Guay
Collector of litterature, notebooks, equipment and memories!

posted 12-01-2005 09:39 AM               

I would guess this would mean he would have to leave his post with the Canadian Space Agency. My impression is that he is well-respected, to the point of being somewhat of a hero, which it seems would bring clout to the agency.

How would it affect CSA for him to take on this new role?

posted 12-05-2005 12:07 PM               

According to CSA rules, Mr. Garneau has resigned from the CSA presidency, and Mr. Virendra Jha, who had been VP of Science and Technologies, has been nominated for a three-month interim.

As a new Member of Parliament in an eventual Liberal government, he would most likely be offered a ministry (Science and Technology, probably), from which he would have new budgetary powers. He would get to name his successor at the agency as well.

If he is elected as a MP but not the Liberals as the government, he would still represent his constituents in the opposition, and would probably take on a position as an opposition critic on science and technology at the Parliament. He would also be delegated by his party to sit on multi-party Parliamentary committees on science and non-science issues. And he would probably have media time on science and tech issues (presumably more so than he presently enjoys as CSA president anyway).

If the Liberals are elected and not Mr. Garneau, he could be reinstated as president of the CSA, as if nothing had happened, if the rules of the Agency permits it.

If, at the contrary, another party wins the government while Mr. Garneau is defeated in the riding for the Liberals, the winning party may or may not offer his old President's seat to Garneau, rules permitting. Reinstating a political opponent as the head of a governmental agency might sound foolish, but unless they come up with a replacement as broadly respected by most Canadians as Mr. Garneau, they could go for status quo at the CSA and save controversial decisions for political issues seen by Canadian as more significant than space.

posted 12-07-2005 10:46 AM               

He mentions his service in the Canadian Navy, under the encouragments of his grandfather and father, veterans of the two world wars.

Then he refers to his "second career" as an astronaut. At first he did it for adventure, he says, but soon he realized that he was still serving his country. He adds: "When one has seen the Earth from space, one wants to unified it rather than fragment it", a reference to the Liberal's main opponent in Quebec, the sovereignist party Bloc Quebecois, and a sentence which I suspect will be his campaign's catch phrase. Garneau then says how he has learned to communicate with young Canadians, aiming to inspire them to fulfill their dreams.

He closes in stating the two reasons for which he is a candidate for the Liberals: the competence in managing Canada's economy, and the party's measures for the underpriviledged.