And you thought being an astronaut was tough

Try campaigning for Parliament in Canada! That’s what Marc Garneau, the first Canadian in space, is discovering as, among other things, he spends cold mornings greeting train riders (en français) at a station in his riding west of Montreal, the Montreal Gazette reports. The campaign has been a little rough for the first-time candidate (and apparently for the Liberal party in general) leading up to the January 23 election. Garneau ran into problems when he discussed his opposition to Quebec separatists, saying he would leave the province should it ever declare independence from Canada, and exacerbated the controversy by likening it to the US invasion of Iraq: “it happened very quickly, but what about after that?” He does have some star power, though: “He’s attractive,” said one train rider. “And my son loves the fact he was an astronaut.”