Marc Garneau, the first Canadian in space, lost his bid yesterday to win a seat in the House of Commons. Garneau, the Liberal candidate in the riding of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, west of Montreal, lost to incumbent Bloc Québécois candidate Meili Faille. Garneau finished second in the five-person race, well behind Faille. Garneau’s loss echoed that experienced by Liberals as a whole, who were pushed out of power nationally by the Conservatives. As for Garneau? The former head of the Canadian Space Agency is looking for work. “I essentially had to quit my job at the Canadian Space Agency,” he told the CBC (via the Globe and Mail) “To put it bluntly, I’m unemployed right now and will be looking for a job obviously because I still have a young family.”
Sad that gsrneau was a Liberal, thus sharing the same sad fate Liberaals elsewhere suffer: loss at elections. If he had been a Conservative, he would now have a seat in Parliament, and be a voice for space in Canada, instead of an electoral loser.
This illustrates the warped, counterintuitive nature of space politics vis.a vis conventional politics: Conservatives should be supporters of space projects, yet they scorn any truly progressive thing like space. Liberals could support space projects, but their false progressive stance on issues leads them to scorn space projects as Conservatives do.
Space needs a new socio-economic-political paradigm, as the current type of thinking of all major political parties in the spacefaring nations serves space ill, if at all, and serves to perpetuate the geocentric-static, status quo.
Better luck next time, Mr. garneau. Try Right-Libertarianist-Dynamism. It works better for the future than old tired Liberal-Conservative ideology.