Background
Marceau was born in Montreal. With roots in Quebec City, his paternal grandfather and his father, Claude, were physicians. Claude was an ENT surgeon who was friends with Parti Québécois founder René Lévesque.
Marceau was born in Montreal. With roots in Quebec City, his paternal grandfather and his father, Claude, were physicians. Claude was an ENT surgeon who was friends with Parti Québécois founder René Lévesque.
Université de Montréal.
He was previously a professor of economics at the Université du Québec à Montréal. As a university student he worked four summers at the Île Sainte-Hélène municipal swimming pool before finding a summer job at Les Coopérants life insurance company in the internal audit department—his only experience in the financial sector before becoming Quebec"s finance minister. His education includes bachelor and master of science degrees from Université de Montréal and a doctorate from Queen"s University, all in economics.
His thesis supervisor was Robin Boadway.
Marceau speaks both French and English fluently. He has four daughters.
He was an economics professor at Laval University from 1992 to 1996, and at Université du Québec à Montréal from 1996 to 2009. He has published 29 articles in academic journals in the field of public economic policy, including in The American Economic Review.
In June 2009 Pauline Marois asked him to run for office at a time when the Province of Quebec was looking to increase its economic credentials, following the departure of François Legault.
He has continued to emphasize a priority of eliminating Quebec"s deficit.
His first budget brought controversy because of backing out of the party"s election promise to eliminate the province"s health tax
He was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in a by-election on September 21, 2009, representing the electoral district of Rousseau as a member of the Parti Québécois. In 2001 he was a member of the Seguin commission which examined the possible fiscal imbalance between the federal and provincial governments. He was elected as a member of the National Assembly of Quebec in a September 2009 by-election, and was Official Opposition critic for finance from 2010 to 2012.