Ancestry of Stéphane Dion

Former ambassador of Canada to France

by Jean-François Loiseau
published on June 5, 2022, updated on April 21, 2026

Stéphane Dion, born on September 28, 1955, in Quebec City, is a political scientist, university professor, diplomat, and Canadian statesman. He studied at Université Laval before earning a doctorate in sociology from Sciences Po.

Before entering politics, he taught political science at Université de Moncton in 1984, and then at Université de Montréal from 1984 to 1995. A specialist in public institutions and federalism, he authored numerous scholarly articles and books on public administration, organizational studies, political institutions, and environmental policy. He also served on the external advisory committee of the climate and energy institute at Yale University from 2011 to 2015.

Elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1996, he represented the Quebec riding of Saint-Laurent–Cartierville until 2015, and then Saint-Laurent until 2017. Under the government of Jean Chrétien, he served for many years as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, playing a central role in debates over Canadian unity. He later became Minister of the Environment under Paul Martin.

In 2006, he was elected leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and became Leader of the Official Opposition, a position he held until 2008.

Returning to government under Justin Trudeau, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada from November 2015 to January 2017. He then served as Canada’s ambassador to Germany from 2017 to 2022, and as Canada’s ambassador to France beginning on June 1, 2022. At the same time, he acted as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to the European Union and Europe.

In March 2026, he was succeeded in these diplomatic roles by Nathalie G. Drouin, the new Canadian ambassador to France.

Stéphane Dion, a cousin of Celine Dion, Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton, Ryan Gosling, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Justin Bieber, Camilla, Queen of the United Kingdom…

Perche-Québec has discovered that Stéphane Dion has many family ties with other celebrities in politics (Hillary Clinton, Justin Trudeau), music (Celine Dion, Madonna, Justin Bieber, Marie-Nicole Lemieux), the film industry (Ryan Gosling, Angelina Jolie) and royalty (Camilla, Queen of the United Kingdom)!

Perche-Québec has found out not less than:
• 909 family links with Marie-Nicole Lemieux
• 451 family links with Justin Bieber
• 392 family links with Fabienne Thibeault
• 323 family links with Xavier Dolan
• 298 family links with Marc Ouellet
• 253 family links with Isabelle Boulay
• 252 family links with Ginette Reno
• 203 family links with Hélène Mercier
• 187 family links with Celine Dion
• 187 family links with Jack Kerouac
• 184 family links with Jean Paul Lemieux
• 175 family links with Diane Tell
• 158 family links with Diane Dufresne
• 142 family links with Madonna
• 123 family links with Angelina Jolie
• 91 family links with Jim Carrey
• 90 family links with Ryan Gosling
• 89 family links with André Gagnon
• 75 family links with Justin Trudeau
• 62 family links with Hillary Clinton
• 30 family links with Camilla, Queen of the United Kingdom
• 20 family links with Alanis Morissette

All those celebrities have in common French-Canadian pioneers, and in particular Percheron pioneers.

For instance, the Percheron pioneer Zacharie Cloutier, an ancestor of most of the celebrities mentioned before, who was born in Mortagne-au-Perche.

As strange as it may seem, there is nothing exceptional about those family ties. As the Percheron pioneers were among the very first French settlers to arrive in what was then known as New France, most of North Americans with French-Canadian ancestry have Percheron blood and are more or less related.