ROCKET MAN HATFIELD BRINGS UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES
When you’ve spent as much time in space as former astronaut Chris Hadfield, you tend to gain a different perspective on your place in the world. You see the big picture through extraterrestrial eyes.
But his latest pursuits tend more toward the cerebral rather than the awe-inspiring adventure associated with flying fast jets and riding rockets into space.
Hadfield, a former Royal Canadian Air Force test pilot who retired after more than 21 years as an astronaut, is currently on what he calls his Canada 151 tour. On March 1, he returns to Halifax with a show at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, bringing a blend of stories, images and songs combining his love for Canada with his astral viewpoint.
“It’s very much a celebration of Canada itself and looking at the country through a very unique perspective of someone who not only has lived outside of Canada for 26 years, as I did serving with the air force and the Canadian Space Agency, but also who has orbited the world 2,600 times and crossed Canada thousands of times,” Hadfield said during a phone interview.
“It’s kind of an introspective alien perspective on Canada in the world, but it’s celebrating it from the earliest history and the geology of it and the earliest settlements from the very first peoples who came here, and how and why, and how the world works, right through to today.
“But all of that really is just a setup for what we’re doing now, what we could be doing better and what we should all choose to do next.”
Hadfield became the first Can- adian to operate the Canadarm in space. He also flew in a Russian spacecraft and helped build the space station Mir, became the first Canadian to walk twice in space and was the first — and so far only — Canadian to command the International Space Station.
Even though he’s a former CF-18 pilot, Hadfield is not publicly sharing his thoughts on the federal government’s plans to replace the aging fleet of jet fighters.
And while he’s happy to talk about his experiences of life in space, he says Canadians are truly engaged with his thoughts on our role as citizens and our nation and its place in the world.
Hadfield started the Canada 150 tour last year and is continuing to criss-cross the country this year with speaking engagements and shows featuring his musical skills — he has written and performed with the likes of the Barenaked Ladies and Emm Gryner, among others — and images shot from outer space.
“The show has just done so well,” Hadfield said. “I had a standing ovation up in North Bay (Ont.) last night and it’s been selling out all across the country, which to me is just a validation of the ideas, that this is something that people really find entertaining, but also sort of provocative and worthwhile.
“Spaceflight is just giving a unique underpinning of perspective that hopefully allows useful thought to follow. And it’s the useful thought, I think, that makes the whole thing worthwhile.”
Through social media and personal interactions, Hadfield said, he continues to hear how his talks and his books have left a profound impression on others’ lives.
And his message is not lost on his own family.
“As a small example, when my daughter was a professor at Dal she was trying to figure out how can she help with the Syrian refugees and the refugee crisis ... and she didn’t have big financial means, but she recognized that she could do something and heard that they needed English tutors.
“She volunteered at her local library, teaching initially one person but then a family, trying to teach them English, and we’ve become more and more involved and we sponsor that family.
“And they are so excited about becoming Canadians. They recognize this enormous opportunity for them and their children. They are working so hard to become good Canadians, and their kids are going to be the very fabric of Canada that we need.”