'Canada's standing in the world has slipped' under Trudeau, Marc Garneau says in autobiography

Former foreign affairs minister Marc Garneau says Canada has lost its standing in the world under the tenure of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom he criticizes as an ill-prepared leader who prioritizes politics and makes big pronouncements without any follow-through.

«I believe Justin Trudeau has overestimated Canada's impact abroad,» Garneau writes in his autobiography,, which is scheduled to be released in October by Penguin Random House.

While much of the book is a trip down memory lane for Garneau's pre-politics career in the military and as an astronaut, the final third is devoted to his time as a member of Parliament.

Garneau, now 75, was first elected in 2008 as the Liberal MP for the Montreal riding of Westmount-Ville Marie, a riding that later became Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Westmount after boundary changes in 2015.

He staged an unsuccessful run for the party leadership in 2013, ultimately withdrawing from the race and backing Trudeau, who would go on to win in a landslide victory.

After the Liberals came to power in 2015, Garneau served in Trudeau's cabinet for six years, more than five of those as the minister of transport. He spent the final nine months as the minister of foreign affairs, until Trudeau dropped him from cabinet completely after the 2021 election.

In his book, Garneau acknowledges being blindsided by that decision — one he says Trudeau never explained.

He makes it clear that he and Trudeau had little in common outside of their «Liberal values,» and that the two were not close.

'Canada's standing in the world has slipped'

Another thing he makes clear: Garneau thinks Trudeau did not value the importance of a foreign affairs minister, and isn't very good at international relations.

«Unfortunately Canada's