it wasn’t about the canal. Suez has been for millenia (right since old Dynasty times in Pharaonic times) used to carry goods from Europe to Asia — by ship to Suez, then overland to the red sea, then by ship again
That’s sort of like what we do with Ashdod and Eilat.
Even before the canal, moving goods via Suez was more efficEsoient than around cape horn.Especially since the English had fleets in the Indina Ocean and in the med.The French were now just renewing their wolrd war with the English. Napoleon had the broader objective of establishing a new capital by displscing the sultan as suzerain in the Near East. The Russians of course had the same goal.