{"id":6692,"date":"2026-11-12T09:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/?p=6692"},"modified":"2026-11-12T09:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:36:20","slug":"podcast-with-france-chretien-desmarais","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/2026\/podcast-with-france-chretien-desmarais\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Love of Humanity, with France Chr\u00e9tien Desmarais"},"content":{"rendered":"    \n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-max  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n        \n                    \n                    \n            \n    <div class=\"cu-wideimage relative flex items-center justify-center mx-auto px-8 overflow-hidden md:px-16 rounded-xl not-prose  my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 bg-opacity-50 bg-cover bg-cu-black-50 py-24 md:py-28 lg:py-36 xl:py-48\" style=\"background-image: url(https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2026\/11\/France1600-1600x700.jpg); background-position: 50% 50%;\">\n\n                    <div class=\"absolute top-0 w-full h-screen\" style=\"background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.600);\"><\/div>\n        \n        <div class=\"relative z-[2] max-w-4xl w-full flex flex-col items-center gap-2 cu-wideimage-image cu-zero-first-last\">\n            <header class=\"mx-auto mb-6 text-center text-white cu-pageheader cu-component-updated cu-pageheader--center md:mb-12\">\n\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold mb-2 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] cu-pageheader--center text-center mx-auto after:left-px\">\n                        For the Love of Humanity, with France Chr\u00e9tien Desmarais\n\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                            <\/header>\n        <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    \n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For National Philanthropy Day (Nov. 15), our podcast hosts spoke with France Chr\u00e9tien Desmarais, Chair of <a href=\"https:\/\/braincanada.ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Brain Canada Foundation<\/a>, Executive Chair of renewable energy producer <a href=\"https:\/\/en.projetmauricie.ca\/team\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TES Canada H2<\/a>, and recipient of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gg.ca\/en\/honours\/recipients\/146-12245\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Order of Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"For the Love of Humanity with France Chr\u00e9tien Desmarais\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o-UwpZs-wnQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">France Chr\u00e9tien Desmarais tells MPNL hosts <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/students-and-alumni\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/students-and-alumni\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lobna Mahdi and Danielle Vaillancourt<\/a> that her life of service is close to that of her father\u2019s, Canadian Prime Minster Jean Chr\u00e9tien. A politician serves people, she says. Philanthropy is the same service, delivered differently. She points to the Greek roots of the word &#8216;philanthropist&#8217;: &#8216;philos&#8217; means loving, and &#8216;anthropos&#8217; means humanity. By that definition, she says she&#8217;s a philanthropist &#8220;big time.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"434\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2026\/11\/France400.jpg\" alt=\"France smiles as she speaks to someone to her left.\" class=\"wp-image-6695\" style=\"width:459px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2026\/11\/France400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2026\/11\/France400-320x347.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">France Chr\u00e9tien Desmarais<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That idea carries into how she raised her family. France believes children learn generosity through their parents&#8217; lives, not by being told what to care about. And giving doesn&#8217;t have to mean large sums. It can be a hot meal for someone, or simply being there for others. As she puts it, &#8220;As long as somebody does something for others, you&#8217;re in business.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Much of this PhilanthroThink Podcast (S2,E7) turns on something that has frustrated her for decades: nonprofits working in silos. She remembers asking a bank CEO to support breast cancer work in Montreal in the 1990s. He told her he&#8217;d give far more if the cancer causes came together under one umbrella; donors get the same requests from many organizations, she explains. That&#8217;s part of why she values the approach of Brain Canada Foundation, which supports research of multiple conditions that affect the brain, from ALS and Alzheimer&#8217;s to dyslexia, because so much research is interconnected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">France took a similar approach to sport. When she founded the Canadian Olympic Foundation, sport sat near the bottom of donors&#8217; priorities, behind healthcare, education and culture. She framed sport as nation-building. She points to Canada&#8217;s Olympic hockey gold in Vancouver, when the win felt like everyone&#8217;s medal, from coast to coast to coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And she sees her work in green hydrogen as part of the same goal. Building a new industry takes the same skills as advancing a cause, and for her, both come down to leaving a better world for the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Watch or listen to the episode <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/o-UwpZs-wnQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube<\/a> or find it on the &#8220;PhilanthroThink Podcast&#8221; on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For National Philanthropy Day (Nov. 15), our podcast hosts spoke with France Chr\u00e9tien Desmarais, Chair of Brain Canada Foundation, Executive Chair of renewable energy producer TES Canada H2, and recipient of the Order of Canada. France Chr\u00e9tien Desmarais tells MPNL hosts Lobna Mahdi and Danielle Vaillancourt that her life of service is close to that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":6689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[39,1206],"tags":[1420,1241,1414,49,1419,191,1422,1423,1413,1424,1415,68,1417,69,70,1411,1412,82,975,17,1320,1418,81,1421,18,1276,1240,19,1416,1239],"class_list":["post-6692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-podcast","tag-anthropos","tag-apple-podcasts","tag-brain-canada-foundation","tag-carleton","tag-danielle-vaillancourt","tag-dpnl","tag-episode-7","tag-founder-of-canadian-olympic-foundation","tag-france-chretien-desmarais","tag-green-hydrogen","tag-jean-chretiens-daughter","tag-leadership","tag-lobna-mahdi","tag-masters","tag-mpnl","tag-national-philanthropy-day","tag-order-of-canada","tag-panl","tag-philanthropist","tag-philanthropy","tag-philanthrothink-podcast","tag-philos","tag-pnl","tag-s2e7","tag-school-of-public-policy-and-administration","tag-season-2","tag-spotify","tag-sppa","tag-tes-canada-h2","tag-youtube"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6692"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6698,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6692\/revisions\/6698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}