Remember Marc Garneau? The famous Canadian astronaut-turned-politician after whom our school is named? Ever wonder where he’s been?

The last time he actually gave us a visit was in January of 2007. That’s almost 5 years ago. It can raise eyebrows considering the fact that we’re the only school in Canada named after him.

Wait, scratch that, we’re one of two schools in Canada named after him (I forgot about the École secondaire publique Marc-Garneau over in Trenton). Still, being one of only two schools in Canada (and probably the world) named after him, it is understandable to expect that we get a little more special attention from the man.

So what has he been up to recently? After becoming the first Canadian to fly in space in October 1984, he continued to work in the space industry until being appointed President of the Canadian Space Agency in 2001. A few years later, he resigned from his job at the agency to run for the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2006 federal election. After losing to Meili Faille, he remained active in politics. He ran again in the 2008 federal election for the riding of Westmount–Ville-Marie, this time successfully. After being declared winner of the riding, and being asked to compare the experience of preparing for a space mission to running for an election, he said “People often ask me whether it’s harder to prepare for space flight or to run a campaign and this has been a very hard-fought campaign,” and said “This has been a grueling campaign. This has been a very, very hard campaign and I’m not ashamed to say this.”1

Ah, another great man lost to the indirectness of politics.

Jokes aside, however, I wonder how much it is to ask for him to check by, maybe even just once a year. Of course, it must be hard considering the fact that he lives all the way in Quebec now, but how hard is it really to come to Toronto every once in while? Being a politician, mustn’t he travel around relatively often anyways?

In the larger scope of happenings at our school, it really isn’t going to be a big deal for him to come visit us. I just think that getting to be in the presence of a famed and esteemed public figure (even if only for a few minutes) must be a good experience. So if you ever get to read this, Dr. Garneau, would you please spare some of your time to visit us again? Maybe if you do, the guy on the announcements will finally stop telling you that there are only two minutes to class.

1 http://www.westislandchronicle.com/Politics/2008-10-15/article-635576/Spaceman-lands-safely-in-WestmountVille-Marie/1