During a federal election campaign, we hosted a coffee party for our friend Marc Garneau. The living and dining rooms were full of chairs seconded from every corner of our house. Marc, sitting in a corner sipping coffee, started to speak. Suddenly our cat Eloise jumped into his lap. Without missing a beat or the space of one syllable, Marc kept on speaking. He delivered his entire talk while stroking a cat emitting a buzz-saw purr.

Marc always said that he had no charisma. I once told him that was the only untruth ever to pass his lips. He had a uniquely subtle charisma that the rest of us would do well to copy.

Ever the scientist and ever the rational thinker, Marc would not have wanted me to write anything maudlin about him. I’ll try not to.

If anyone on Earth were the polar opposite of a Donald Trump, it would be Marc Garneau. Yet he was deeply respected by all the Americans he met,........

© Montreal Gazette