Francis G. Leblanc, BA, MA

Senior Consultant
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Economist & policy analyst; Served as Parliamentary Secretary; Chaired Standing Committee on HR Development; Former Chief of Staff for Foreign Affairs and HRDC.

An economist by training, and fluently bilingual, Francis LeBlanc brings a wealth of leadership and management experience, a broad knowledge of government and politics, and an engaging personality to issues of public policy facing organizations of national scope. He has over 20 years of experience within Parliament and the Government of Canada, as Member of Parliament, Chief of Staff, and senior Policy Analyst.

Francis was first elected to the House of Commons on November 21, 1988 as Member of Parliament for the Nova Scotia constituency of Cape Breton Highlands-Canso and served as critic for Trade, Atlantic Development and Fisheries in the Official Opposition.

Re-elected in 1993, he was named Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources Development. Francis was later appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and led delegations to the United Nations and abroad.

In 1997, Francis joined former Liberal Cabinet Minister Pierre Pettigrew as Chief of Staff and served in the portfolios of Human Resources Development, International Trade, Health and Intergovernmental Affairs, and, finally, Foreign Affairs. During the December 2006 UN Conference on Climate Change in Montreal, Francis was senior advisor to the head of the Canadian delegation and worked closely with Canada’s negotiating team, other country delegations, NGOs, and other key stakeholders to produce a successful outcome.

From 1984 to 1988, Francis worked on unemployment insurance issues as senior policy analyst for the then Department of Employment and Immigration in the Public Service of Canada.

He holds a B.A. in Political Science from St. Francis Xavier University, an M.A. in Economics from Queen’s University, and has studied economics at the doctoral level at Université Laval. He is married to Ottawa businesswoman Marlene Shepherd. They have two children.