Buckley Belanger is a veteran politician in Northern Saskatchewan. (Facebook/Buckley Belanger)

By Derek Cornet

federal election

Belanger believes Liberals can provide stable governance for Canadians

Apr 7, 2025 | 2:38 PM

Buckley Belanger, the Liberal candidate for Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River in the upcoming federal election, believes his party can provide stable governance for the country moving forward.

Belanger is a longtime Saskatchewan politician having first become an MLA for the Liberals in 1995, before joining the NDP in 1998. He continued in that role until his resignation in 2021 to run as a Liberal in that year’s federal election. Belanger lost that race to former Conservative MP Gary Vidal and he was subsequently voted as the mayor of Ile-a-la Crosse in 2024.

Belanger is confident he has the knowledge to build a strong connection with Ottawa.

“It’s important we talk about connection because that’s why I am running and that’s who I am,” he explained.

“There’s no question in my mind that I think that we need that strong connect to Ottawa. That’s one of the reasons we made the jump from provincial politics to federal politics. It is really clear that people in Northern Saskatchewan have a disconnect with Ottawa because they don’t have anyone who can make that connection for them, so going to Ottawa to navigate a huge bureaucracy to put forward our priorities, to tell our stories, this is why I want to be able to use this skill set and experience that I have been taught over the years.”

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As the April 28 federal election comes near, Belanger wants voters to know Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is too close to United States President Donald Trump. He noted Trump does not have any respect for Canada and the only person that can stand up to him intellectually and maturely is Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“If you look at the national leaders we have to choose from, Carney is a very accomplished and educated and mature leader. He has international experience, he has a strong economic background, he’s got just a huge amount of education and experience, and above all else, a very strong mature leader,” Belanger said.

“You contrast that to Pierre Poilievre and his connection to Donald Trump, it is clear that they all share the same values and people are not convinced that Poilievre is mature enough nor are they convinced that he isn’t connected to Donald Trump. I want to tell people in Northern Saskatchewan that Trump simply wants our resources, whether it is oil and gas and water, and the person who is going to give it to him the easiest is Poilievre.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com