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Beyond the Stars and the House: Marc Garneau's Epic Journey!
74 Plays7 days ago
In this week’s episode of And Another Thing, Jodie Jenkins and Tony Clement sit down with Canada’s first astronaut, former MP, and celebrated public servant Marc Garneau. Marc shares stories from his remarkable life and career, as captured in his recent memoir, offering an inside look at his journey from space exploration to politics. From orbiting Earth to navigating the corridors of Parliament, Marc reflects on his achievements, challenges, and the lessons learned along the way. This is an episode you won’t want to miss!
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Catchphrase Oversight
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of And Another Thing, the podcast that continues to set the bar in the world of podcasts. My name is Jody Jenkins. My name is Tony Clement. And interesting factoid, Tony. yeah Last week when we did this show, I forgot to use our typical line of setting the bar. I don't know if, did you notice that at all? No, I didn't, but I noticed that one of our listeners noticed.
00:00:48
Speaker
Yes. Well, no, no, I didn't know. I didn't know that he noticed, but I noticed when I was listening back to it. And I think it was because if you recall, our producer had to restart the show several times because
Celebrating Six Years and Acknowledging Sponsors
00:01:02
Speaker
you had, you had what we call in the business, a frog in your throat. Yeah, I did have a frog. Yes, I do. Yeah. So I think what happened by about the sixth time we restarted the episode, I was so flustered that I just said, screw it. I'm not doing the line. Okay, so it's all my fault then. I think that's gonna happen. 100% your fault, so. Yeah, it was. I'm excited to get to it today, a very. Yeah.
00:01:29
Speaker
a very interesting guest. This is this ranks up there definitely in the top percentiles of our guests in our five year existence, which, by the way, I think we just went. I think I was looking at this. I know we've talked about it. I was Facebook always reminds me of things that I want to be reminded of, but mostly of things I don't want to be reminded of. um And Mark, I'm sorry, I shouldn't give it the name. Well, we na i appreciate it. I get a lot of reminders about the 2015 election, which I never want to be reminded. But what I was going to say is I get these and I sent you a screenshot of one like we were kicking off the podcast. Our first one was coming. We launched the Facebook page. So I'm still trying to figure out if our first show was in November, five years ago or October or near the tail end. but That's a good question. Remember we recorded two in a row yeah just just to get going, so I don't know. um Anyway, the bottom line is we're entering our sixth year. Yes, we are. We have a ton of experience under our belt. Feels good. you know we're We're humble guys, but I mean, we're easily the best podcasters in Canada. so Easily. Not even close. and not even We have the best podcast listeners in Canada. But even more so than that, we have the best podcast ah sponsors. Sponsors. Why don't you roll into that? Let's ah thank our sponsors as we like to do right off the top. Of course, our new presenting sponsor is the Canadian Bankers Association. CBA.ca is where you're going to find them. You know, Jody, having spent years in government myself, one thing I've learned is that trust is everything.
00:03:08
Speaker
Without trust between government and its people, it's tough to get anything done, whether it's building communities or creating jobs. The same level of trust is what Canadians place in their banks. It might surprise you, Jody, or maybe not, to learn that over 99% of adult Canadians have an account with a financial institution. That's almost every one of your friends, your neighbors, basically all of us. And with that kind of trust, banks know they've got a big responsibility to deliver.
00:03:38
Speaker
It's not just ah about handling your day-to-day banking, whether you're paying bills or saving for that dream home or setting something aside for your kid's future. It's also about being there for over 3 million self-employed Canadians and small businesses too, helping them grow and thrive. Just like in government, it's about making sure people have the support they need to succeed. So next time you're making a financial decision, big or small,
00:04:04
Speaker
Remember, Canada's banks are on your side. They're working for you, for your family, and for the success of this country. Want to learn more? Head over to cba a dot.ca for all the details. We also want to thank our other presenting sponsor, Municipal Solutions. Yes, they're a presenting sponsor, too. They are your project management team for rezonings and development approvals. Municipal Solutions cuts through the municipal red tape to bring your project to fruition.
00:04:34
Speaker
As always, go to municipalsolutions.ca and John Mutton and the gang will be there for you. And we also want to acknowledge our other sponsor KWM Consulting. KWM has been in the lobbying and advocacy business for over 23 years. They support companies to deal with governments and this company KWM believes in honest and ethical advice and the value of hard work.
00:04:59
Speaker
Don't just take my word for it. Contact Kelly Mitchell personally at kwmconsulting
Introduction of Guest: Mark Garneau
00:05:05
Speaker
.com or phone Kelly at 416-728-8287. And finally, we want to acknowledge and thank our terrestrial radio sponsor. That is huntersbayradio.com every Saturday morning. They have a number of podcasts that are rebroadcast and including this fine podcast. Go to huntersbayradio.com.
00:05:30
Speaker
one One thing before we introduce our guest, and I introduced a new listener to our program last week. They wanted to hear our discussion on the Trump victory in the stateside election, but their comment was interesting. Their feedback, because I said, let me know your feedback from the program. They loved it. They thought it should be longer. so Really? Yeah, that's what's interesting.
00:05:53
Speaker
yeah yeah well and and You know, we've talked about it, haven't we Jody? But, uh, you know, we're not a three hour podcast. Let's face it. We don't know. We don't want to do that, but, uh, you know, sometimes we do veer a little bit longer than a half an hour. No, I think that's fair, but yeah. So probably as we continue to amass more sponsorships, we might have to make it a little bit longer. So.
00:06:16
Speaker
I'm all okay with that. yeah We can make it a little bit longer. The sad thing is we only have 60 seconds for our guests. We should get to it. We should get to it. Let me introduce our guest for today's program, the Honorable Mark Garneau. Of course, I knew him in the House of Commons, but he comes with a very storied career. He started out as an electrical engineer He was a Royal Canadian Navy ah veteran, as well as, you probably know, dear listener, that he was an astronaut. He became the first Canadian in outer space in 1984. After that, he came back down to Earth and ran as an MP in Notre Dame de Grasse, Westmount, and he was an MP from 2008
00:06:57
Speaker
to
Garneau's Memoir and Navy Influence
00:06:58
Speaker
2023. I should mention he was a liberal MP, ah so we weren't on the same team. He was team red, I was team blue, but we got along pretty well, I think. Amongst his portfolios were Minister of Transport from 2015 to 2021, and in 2021, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. And recently, yeah he has just published his memoir. It's doing very well. It's called A Most Extraordinary Ride, Space, Politics, and the Pursuit of the Canadian Dream. Ladies and gentlemen, the Honorable Mark Garneau. Good evening, Tony, and good evening, Jody. Good to be with you. It's great to have you. Where do we find you today? What part of Canada are you in right now? I'm in my hometown now in Montreal.
00:07:43
Speaker
Lovely, lovely. Well, it's always nice. Fall in Montreal is one of the nicest falls, so I hope you had a good one there. But i want to I want to take you back a little bit and start off this conversation about your memoir ah because ah there's a lot of things that you know I gleaned from it, just a ah casual read, but I'd love to get your sense of what you think, because when you write a memoir, you're really looking back on your life. And I'd love to get a sense from you what you think your central lesson was about your lack about your life having written your book. what What do you think your story is and what do you want to tell Canadians about your story?
00:08:26
Speaker
Well, it's a good question. um I wrote it primarily for my children and my children know about my public life being an astronaut and then ah being a politician.
00:08:38
Speaker
but they don't know very much about my early life. And what I wanted them to be able to see was that I made my share of mistakes when I was a very young person. In fact, I made some very silly mistakes and i learned a great deal from those. And the message I think is probably that we all make mistakes. ah The important thing is to learned from them and I was very fortunate to have parents and friends and and Relatives who were very supportive and helped me get back on on the the right track and that it Failure is not the end of the world and that it's important in life ah to pick yourself up and to to move onwards And that's what I've done in my life in my life. My life is not just filled with some successful episodes. It's also filled with some
00:09:29
Speaker
very important lessons. And I wanted to make sure that my children understood that that's a pretty normal life and that it's important to to not to let yourself get discouraged. i I think one of the episodes that you're referring to was when you were 16, got intoxicated and got to a little bit of trouble. And it sounds like that was a major turning point in your life. Is that correct?
00:09:56
Speaker
It was, it was. And you're very polite to say I was intoxicated. I was very drunk and and I was a 16 year old and I was with a friend and he decided that he was going to steal something and I happened to be with him. And we were caught and I spent ah part of the night in jail and my father had to come and get me, which, you know, I felt pretty ashamed that my father had to come and get me out of jail at three o'clock in the morning. And it made me realize that that I needed to get my life together because although I had a sense of adventure and and was very sort of ah curious and wanted to go out there and live life fully, I also lacked judgment. And this was an important learning moment for me. I subsequently appeared in front of a judge and he scared the living daylight side out of me.
00:10:48
Speaker
And I realized at that point, I needed to do something. And I actually made the decision at that point to go down to the Canadian Armed Forces Recruiting Center. And I joined the Navy and went on to military college. So that was a very important turning point in my life. And did the ah did the experience in the Navy, obviously, when you when you do something like that, there's a sense of ah responsibility. There's a sense of teamwork. There's a sense of focus and direction. All of those things are are they accurate in terms of what you learned out of the Navy? Very much so. Not only my my my time at military college, but I'll give you an example. I had this rather exceptional opportunity to cross the ocean, the Atlantic Ocean in a sailboat, a 57 foot yawl, which is a two masted sailboat in in a race from Newport in Rhode Island.
00:11:42
Speaker
to Cork in Ireland. There was a 20-day crossing. ah There was a crew of 13 and we had to obviously get the job done, get from A to B, but also we had to work as a team and you know trying to maximize the speed of a of a sailboat involves a lot of sail changes and that has to be a very coordinated thing. And throughout all of that 20-day crossing, there were days when the weather was good and that was very pleasant, but there were days when it was really awful and that made the work very, very hard. so
00:12:15
Speaker
It was an experience that taught me, first of
Inspiration from Space Exploration
00:12:18
Speaker
all, to to to ah work as part of a team, to put up with difficult conditions. And I think ultimately that experience probably helped me um with with my next career after that, when I went into the space business, because that's there are a lot of parallels between you know working as ah as a crew in ah in ah in a difficult environment, in this case, space. And so I think that that time that I spent in the military was was very formative in my life. Was it on that um sailing race? Was that around the time of Neil Armstrong on the moon? is is Did I get that right? You did. You did. As a matter of fact, shortly after crossing the ocean, we were in the English Channel on the night when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon and you know the the lunar module
00:13:11
Speaker
came in and we were listening to this on on radio on the radio and actually looking up at the moon in in the sky. It was a beautiful night. and And when he said the eagle has landed and and ah and a number of hours later got out with Buzz Aldrin and walked on the moon, I can remember that so vividly. And and i I draw the parallel between them traveling 400,000 kilometers through the vacuum of space and landing their craft in the Sea of Tranquility on the moon And here I was in one of the oldest forms of transportation, a sailboat in the English Channel. And it it it struck me that night that, wow, maybe this is something that would be the most exciting adventure in the world to go into space.
00:13:56
Speaker
Now, i so let's let's shift to that just for a second because um I do want you to talk a little bit about your experiences when you were when you were in space and and how transformative that was. But I also want you to address, and you were head of the Canadian Space space Agency. I remember my time at Industry Canada and we we had some discussions about that ah after you were in Parliament. but um you know There's ah always a lot of controversy about the amount of expenditure it takes for space exploration. It's a very expensive thing. Even with private sector involvement now, it still is very expensive and and the debate hasn't gone away whether it's worth it or not. so I'd love for you to just talk about something about what it's like to be in space, but also keep in mind that you know there <unk>re we're always dealing with critical audiences now that don't necessarily see the virtues in space exploration.
00:14:53
Speaker
Yes, and i and I understand that and I've been getting those kinds of questions for the past 40 years. When you explain to Canadians, for example, that there's value in going in space to put communication satellites up there or Earth observation satellites or navigation or weather satellites,
00:15:12
Speaker
They see the value of that because it directly affects them back down here on earth. It allows somebody to use their cell phone to call anybody anywhere on the planet. if It allows them to locate themselves anywhere on the planet, that kind of thing. When you talk about human exploration,
00:15:29
Speaker
ah Then there are some question marks on the part of of some people, and and and I've always explained it this way. I think that, you know, as humans, we are curious. We we do want to go out there and and on on on new frontiers and explore.
00:15:45
Speaker
And I think that there's an inspirational value. I've certainly noticed this in the past 40 years. so When I talk to young audiences, ah young children, their eyes are just so bright and alive listening to this and they're imagining themselves. And I've had lots of people come to me over the years and say that, you know, when I came and spoke to them at their school and talked about the value of not necessarily them going and becoming astronauts, but but of technology and science in general. ah They've said in some cases that that this in my talk to them influenced their their course in life. So I think that it is important to have that inspirational value, which is part of the part of the price, if you like, of going into space. We should always send robots first, of course. And there are places where you can't send humans, but there are occasions when I think
00:16:36
Speaker
um humans go into space, and I think it inspires us as ah as a humanity, and I hope that that will continue. What was it like being in space? It's an extraordinary, is to use the the title of the book, Experience, and and primarily for two reasons. One is is, well, the child in you because you're floating up there, and and believe it or not, even though I'm a serious adult most of the time, being able to float around is is something that sort of brought my brought me back to the imagination I had as a child when I was sort of not shackled by reality. And and that's kind of fun because we become when we grow up we become serious adults. But by far the most profound ah experience or part of the of going into space is the fact that you see Earth from above as you orbit it every 90 minutes. ah You see that this is an exquisitely beautiful planet
00:17:32
Speaker
ah But it's surrounded by the blackness and the vacuum of space. And it is not only the cradle of humanity, but it's our only option for a very, very long time. And that you start thinking about the importance of us all taking care of it, because there is no other option. You see the very thin atmosphere that surrounds it, that allows us to breathe and and live on the planet. You see the oceans, you see the land.
00:17:59
Speaker
And you see that after a while when your eye gets trained to it, you see the the effects of human presence on on the planet. And in some cases, it's deforestation. In other cases, it is ah ah the smog that you will see over certain parts of the world, over China, over California, over over the Mediterranean. You know that that is due to human activity.
00:18:26
Speaker
And it makes you realize that it is important for us to be mindful of the environment because it's the environment that we share globally and we need to take care of it for future generations. Do you have any um any opinion about whether it is worthwhile to go to Mars as as human beings, like human landings on Mars?
00:18:47
Speaker
Well, not until you know there is a national will, and then I would say an international will, because I don't think any country will go by itself. I think it's just too big an undertaking and no country will, I think, have the resolve to do it by itself. ah So it's one of those things where um there has to be a national will, and national will can can go up and down. It can fluctuate. For example, after the Apollo missions,
00:19:17
Speaker
The last one was in 1972. The United States said, look, we won the race to the moon. There's no, nobody wants to go back to the moon. And really nothing, nothing happened in terms of humans going to the moon for for, well, up until now. So there was not the national will to do so. Now we have sent lunar or Martian landers and Martian rovers and Martian spacecraft to go around the planet, but so far not humans. It's a very much bigger undertaking. For one thing, it takes six months. in if If you go at exactly the the best time of the year, it'll take you six months to get there. You'll be there probably a year and a half and it'll be six months to come back. And while you're on Mars, you have to obviously be able to live.
00:20:03
Speaker
And so it's it's in terms of a technological challenge, it is orders of magnitudes greater. So that's one of the reasons that a whole bunch of countries now are going to the moon because it's only three days away and they can sort of stage there and and sort of test out a whole bunch of things. I think within the 21st century, yes, humans will go. They'll be drawn to it and it'll probably be an international mission And um you know ah it it will continue that sort of exploration of our solar system. Do you believe that there are extraterrestrial life out there?
00:20:43
Speaker
I believe that there's millions of planets out there that harbour life um because there are billions of planets and right and millions of of of solar systems and and in fact
Transition from Astronaut to Politician
00:20:57
Speaker
galaxies out there. and so Mathematically, from my point of view, there have to be many, many that are like Earth and have the right sort of conditions that are necessary to sustain life. So yes, I do believe it. But if you ask me, have we been visited by them? i I'm afraid I would have to say no at this point, despite all the all the people who believed in UFOs. So you never saw anything when you were in the Navy or in the astronaut program that was very strange out there. You never saw anything.
00:21:27
Speaker
I did not. I did not. Some people have seen things that are unexplained, but that doesn't mean that you should jump to the conclusion that they're UFOs. In some cases, they're just things that remain unexplained. But I do not believe that UFOs have come to Earth because I don't believe that they would come all the way and not land and basically say hello. Because if they're that advanced, they don't have anything to worry about coming down. They shouldn't be worried. They don't have to be spying on us.
00:21:57
Speaker
Well, maybe they're amongst us, these lizard people you never know. No, no don't worry. we're not We're not one of those programs. um But speaking of life on other planets, I want to talk about politics now.
00:22:09
Speaker
you know um And I want to put it this way. we will talk I want to talk a little bit about your political career, but just the transition. you know how What was it like and what are the similarities and differences between being an astronaut and being a politician? Let's put it that way.
00:22:26
Speaker
Well, ah not great in terms of similarities because, you know, as an engineer and an astronaut, I sort of dealt with and had to respect the laws of physics. I think that being a politician is a far more subtle than nuanced.
00:22:41
Speaker
kind of occupation, and I had to learn how to be. And I was late getting into politics. I was, gosh, I had my first try, which I failed at. I was i was already 56. So um I think that being a politician is another way to serve your country, and I think it is a very noble profession.
00:23:02
Speaker
And I'm very very glad that I had 14, 15 years to do it. But I had to also learn the craft because it doesn't naturally come from being um an engineer or an astronaut. Now on the positive side, I think I brought rigor.
00:23:18
Speaker
and logic to to my job, to to my understanding of what it's like to be a politician. And I'm used to trying to answer questions as honestly and directly as possible. That's what engineers have to do. It's it's you know sort of required. um But I also learned that in politics,
00:23:37
Speaker
there has to be um there has to be a little more subtlety in in how you respond to certain kinds of questions and and what you're allowed to say and what you're not allowed to say, that kind of thing. So I had to learn my craft like a lot of people and and initially I made mistakes and then eventually learned how to do it.
00:23:58
Speaker
You were in the house I think for 14 years. Is that right? Did I get that right? Yes, that's right. That's the same as me. I was 14 years as well, 2006 to end of 2019. I think if I may say you've seen the joys of politics and also the disappointments of politics.
00:24:16
Speaker
that's That's true. and Sorry, go ahead. yeah no no so yeah I just wanted you to expand on that and and ah be philosophical. People always ask me, do you miss it? and I have an answer, but I'd love to hear your answer first.
00:24:30
Speaker
So to answer that right away, I do not miss it, but I am really happy that I had those 14 years in the House of Commons. In the first seven years, I was in opposition, which is ah which is ah you know a good way to learn your craft, although seven years is a bit long. And we went we went from being the official opposition to being the third party. So I had the experience of of being in a party that that had never been a third party. And so that was a very humbling exercise. And then I had the ah privilege of being in government for the remaining seven years and six, roughly six of them, I was a cabinet minister. And that's really what had drawn me to politics in the first place, because when I was president of the Canadian Space Agency, um I reported to
00:25:24
Speaker
ah ministry that you you led for for for a number of years and I could make recommendations to you but ultimately I realized it's the politicians, it's cabinet, it's the government that makes the decisions and I thought it would be nice to be on that side of the table and that's what drew me into politics and so I had the opportunity during my time as a cabinet minister to make some decisions which you know I hope were the right decisions. I was in transport for five years which is a long time and in fact the third longest serving and I was very very proud
00:25:59
Speaker
of of being in Transport Canada. And I enjoyed being in in Foreign Affairs, although I was very disappointed to be removed after nine months. I would have very much liked to have ah stayed on to do a number of other things, but it was not to be. But the privilege of being able to um to make decisions that are important for the country, I think is the greatest privilege of being a Member of Parliament.
00:26:24
Speaker
And just so you know how I answer the question, when people say, do you miss it? I say, I miss the good things about it, but I don't miss the bad things about it. It's a good way to put it. And over time, as you know, sometimes the bad things sort of increase in potency and the good things kind of are more in the back yeah in the rearview mirror. So that's that's the problem I think overall. and And so now I don't miss it. But i you know i miss I miss the collegiality and some of my good friends and some of the good experiences we had there.
00:27:02
Speaker
would you um and It's interesting that you so your first portfolio was Transport Canada. My first portfolio ah in Ontario was the Ministry of Transportation. and I loved being Minister of Transportation because It was one of those things where you could you you you talk about you know being an engineer and and the laws of physics. when when At least my experience at the Ontario Ministry of Transportation was that you know you could measure results. How many kilometres of road did we repave today? you know That kind of thing.
00:27:39
Speaker
It was very, very much focused and you could measure things. ah Not so much in other departments that I had to lead like healthcare and so on where the the the measurements were over a longer period of time. So I don't know whether you ever made that that conclusion as well.
00:27:56
Speaker
what you're right You're right. There are sort of tangible yardsticks that you can measure. and and From my point of view, I always regard transport as actually an economic portfolio because the economic prosperity of Canada, because we are a trading nation, is very much tied to how efficiently We move our goods across the country, south of the border and out to our ports to world destinations. And that requires a transportation infrastructure that is efficient, whether it's railways, whether it's shipping ah through seaways, that kind of thing, or our roads themselves. And so, and and and when you
00:28:40
Speaker
When you looked at some of the statistics involved with that,
Legacy and Canadian Space Mission
00:28:43
Speaker
you got a sense of whether we were making progress or not. and The other thing apart from from that was the fact that I came to the conclusion that every single Canadian has an opinion about transportation because we all use it right and has some advice to give to the government, whether it's municipal, provincial or federal, about how to make it better.
00:29:06
Speaker
So it was endlessly interesting and and certainly a very, very hot ministry in every respect. Everybody has an opinion. Exactly. Everybody has an opinion. Jody, I've been hogging our guest here. Do you have anything that you want to add?
00:29:22
Speaker
I'm used to it by now, but yes, I did want to, I did want to ask two quick questions. ah Mark, one of them, I'll start with the school one because I believe, is it two schools that you have named after your yourself? Yes. Yes. And one of them, one of them I know for sure is right here in our backyard.
00:29:39
Speaker
in the Quinte region, of course, Marc Garneau in Trenton there. um what's What's that feel like? and and what like I mean, that's that's a pretty cool honour. Not many people have schools named after themselves. It's an enormous honour, as you say. The one in in in Trenton is Le Consul Grand Air, Marc Garneau. It's a French school. And the one in Toronto is Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute.
00:30:03
Speaker
And that one was named first. That was 37 years ago. And I can remember when it was proposed to me, how honored I felt. I also felt a little trepidation because I thought, you know, I've got to really keep my act clean all the way to the end of my life or they'll rename the school without any hesitation. and But no, seriously, I have been going to the school on a regular basis. I've also been to the one in in in Trenton.
00:30:32
Speaker
ah To see the students, one of them once said to me, are you really Marc Garneau? I said, yes. And he said, well, I said, why are you asking? He said, well, I thought you were dead because the school is named after you, which which I guess usually is the way it is. But it's been a ah great honor and a pleasure to interact with the kids in the school and to to talk to talk to them and answer their questions. So ah one of the things I'm most most proud of, Jody,
00:31:00
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's that's very cool. And of course, again, I see that school all the time in my travels. The second question I had going back to the space ah experience you've had, and you mentioned the childlike wonder ah that surrounds being in space and the opportunity. And my question actually comes from my eight-year-old son. ah Earlier today, I mentioned to him that I said, guess who's on the show tonight? He goes, who? I go, Marc Garneau. I go, do you know who that is? he goes Hmm. I don't. I go, he's he was an astronaut and a politician. He goes, Oh, did he, did he put a flag on the moon? And I i said, I can ask him. And then he is second. So he wants to know if there was, if you ever put a flag on the moon and he wants to know what the surface of the moon is like, even though I might not, but from your, you're from your knowledge, you might be able to help him out with that. He's been closer to the moon than yet you or I anyway.
00:31:54
Speaker
yeah I've been marginally closer to the moon, about 400 kilometers closer than you have. but no So I didn't plan to flag on the moon. the The moon is basically pretty dusty and of course it's full of craters.
00:32:10
Speaker
And boulders and rocks and it's got no atmosphere at all and
Canada-U.S. Relations under Trump
00:32:16
Speaker
it's got one sixth of the gravity of earth So if you try to well hit a golf ball or just jump in the air You're gonna jump much higher than you can here on earth But unfortunately, I haven't had the chance but and I got to make a commercial here ah in 2026 um a Canadian will go around the moon. right And that will be the first time anybody but an American has been as far as the moon. His name is Jeremy Hanson, and he's from Ontario, and he will be on a mission called Artemis 2. They won't land on the moon because this is a development flight just to test all the systems, but there'll be a crew of four, three Americans,
00:32:59
Speaker
and one Canadian. And I am really just tickled to think that a Canadian will be in that crew, which I think speaks highly about how NASA feels about Canadian astronauts. So very proud of ah of Jeremy and we'll be looking forward to that mission and in in a couple of years. That's going to be exciting.
00:33:21
Speaker
One last question for you. um Obviously, things have changed a little bit in the last week or so with President Trump's ah victory. He'll be sworn in in January. do you I'd love to get your sense of where where if Canada's in trouble, you know to put it that way, or whether we've got the wherewithal as the government and to to to deal with the new reality.
00:33:51
Speaker
Well, I was very much involved in the in the first period when when Donald Trump was president and and the negotiation of NAFTA 2.0. And I think that by and large Canada did a great job. And it involved not only the federal government, but also provincial.
00:34:07
Speaker
premiers and it was a team effort and and I think it went very well. This time is going to be more challenging but i think that I think that Canada can come out of this in good shape. It will take our very best in terms of negotiating and we have to identify the leverage points, the points where we have things that the United States needs and that we can sort of say, well, if you're going to do this, because as everybody says, Donald Trump is a transactional president. He right wants to, I'll give you this
Conclusion and Podcast Access
00:34:42
Speaker
if you give me that, or you get rid of this, or you're going to get this. um So it will take our very best. and And I am confident that there are enough things given the fact that we, 77% of what we
00:34:56
Speaker
trade with the United States, including the biggest thing, which is which is still oil, are things that are in demand in the United States. So I'm looking forward to seeing how that unfolds, but it will take our very best efforts and our very best strategies. Mark Garneau's book is called A Most Extraordinary Ride, Space, Politics and the Pursuit of the Canadian Dream. You can get it anywhere, I'm sure, online or in your favorite bookstore. Mark Garneau, thanks for being on the program. Thanks very much, Jody. It was a pleasure to talk to you again and yeah nice to meet you too, Jody.
00:35:34
Speaker
Yeah, no, thank you very much. We do want to thank our two presenting sponsors, including the Canadian Bankers Association, cba dot.ca. You can find out a lot more about what they do ah in their role and responsibilities. municipalsolutions.ca, John Mutt and the gang are always there for you on municipal red tape and zoning matters. And finally, KWM Consulting, Kelly Mitchell, you can find him at KWMconsulting.com.
00:36:01
Speaker
and you can get a repeat of this program if you so desire on terrestrial radio at huntersbayradio.com. All right, we'll do this again in seven days, Tony. You got it.