François-Philippe Champagne

Champagne was born on June 25, 1970, in Greenfield Park, Quebec. His parents divorced when he was a small child and he split his time between his father's home in Shawinigan and his mother's apartment in Sainte-Foy, Quebec City. His father Gilles owned a water treatment company in Shawinigan and was "a prominent entrepreneur". Champagne attended CEGEP in Trois-Rivières and later studied law at the Université de Montréal. He went on to complete a postgraduate program at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio, where he won a scholarship for non-American students. After graduating he lived in Wickliffe and worked for Bailey Controls, an industrial automation systems manufacturer that had been acquired by Italian conglomerate Elsag SpA. In 1994, Champagne moved to Italy to work for Elsag, living in Genoa and learning to speak Italian. The company was taken over by Swiss firm ABB Group in 1998 and the following year he moved to Zurich. In 2008, Champagne joined engineering and project management consultancy Amec PLC as director of strategic development. According to The Globe and Mail, by this point he had "built a network of business contacts across Europe, helping him land him on the World Economic Forum's 2009 roster of young global leaders". ==Political career==

In an interview with The Globe and Mail in London, 2009, Champagne expressed his desire to eventually return to Canada and enter politics, citing fellow Shawinigan resident Jean Chrétien as an inspiration. Ahead of the 2015 Canadian federal election, he was nominated as the Liberal candidate in Saint-Maurice—Champlain, a riding represented at the time by New Democratic-turned-Liberal MP Lise St-Denis, and was elected to Parliament on October 19, 2015. After his election in 2015, Champagne was appointed as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Finance until 2017, when he was appointed Minister of International Trade. Minister of Infrastructure and Communities (2018–2019) In 2018, Champagne was named Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, and oversaw the federal government's $187 billion infrastructure investment plan. in 2020 Minister of Foreign Affairs (2019–2021) In November 2019, Champagne became Minister of Foreign Affairs, taking the helm of Trudeau's foreign policy. In June 2020, it was reported that Champagne had two more mortgages with the state-owned Bank of China, raising questions of potential vulnerability to foreign influence. Champagne welcomed Trump's peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates as a positive and historic step toward a peaceful and secure Middle East, adding Canada was gladdened by suspension of Israel's plans to annex parts of the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank. Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry (2021–2025) In the 2021 Canadian cabinet shuffle, Champagne was moved out of the foreign affairs portfolio, and became Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. Champagne was characterized by Politico in 2023 as "Trudeau's pitchman" for a global audience, tasked with luring would-be foreign investment in the United States to instead invest in Canada. His efforts were credited with enticing Volkswagen to construct a gigafactory in Canada rather than the U.S., a first for the company outside of Europe. In 2024, he suggested that the Competition Bureau should scrutinize Big Tech companies' activities in the payments sector. Champagne highlighted competition-related concerns associated with Apple and Google's digital wallet services. Champagne was widely considered to be a possible candidate in the 2025 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election, following the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He later announced that he would not enter the leadership race to focus on defending Canadians from the threat of tariffs of the second Trump administration. On January 16, he endorsed former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney. Minister of Finance (2025–present) Champagne was appointed minister of finance on March 14, 2025, upon the swearing-in of Mark Carney's cabinet. Following the 2025 federal election, he was additionally given the responsibility of National Revenue. In July 2025, Champagne asked fellow cabinet ministers to find savings in their departments, with the goal of a 15% government operational spending cut by 2029. Champagne announced in October that the government would establish a Financial Crimes Agency in 2026, along with a "national anti-fraud strategy". He presented the 2025 federal budget in November, promising to reduce the civil service by about 40,000 positions, cut temporary immigration from 673,650 in 2025 to 385,000 in 2026, balance operational spending by 2029, and reach the 2% of GDP NATO target for military spending by 2026. In January 2026, the government announced the "Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit", which will increase quarterly goods and services tax (GST) payments by 25 percent over five years. It was also announced that a one-time GST top-up of 50 percent would be implemented in June 2026. ==Personal life==

, Champagne lived with his domestic partner Anne-Marie Gaudet in Grand-Mère, Quebec. Champagne is trilingual, speaking English, French and Italian. ==Electoral record==