Veteran politician Buckley Belanger says he didn’t have much advice to give Prime Minister Mark Carney about Saskatchewan politics and the often tense provincial-federal relationship.

The MP for Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River was the lone Liberal elected in Saskatchewan in the 2025 federal election. In May, Carney named him secretary of state for rural development.

“I think the prime minister probably had more intel on Saskatchewan as a whole than I did because the guy studies a lot of these places he deals with,” Belanger said in an interview with CBC about his first year in Parliament.

Belanger described Carney as a “complex thinker” with a clear message.

“When you sit in a room with him, he makes it very easy to understand what we have to do as a country,” Belanger said.

He credits Carney’s leadership for the improved relations between Saskatchewan and Ottawa, which Premier Scott Moe has also acknowledged.

“The prime minister recognized, and I was really glad that he did because it saved me some work, the fact that Saskatchewan has a lot to offer … and I think the premier wants to build on that,” Belanger said.

“The relationship dictates that we all have a self-interest in strengthening Saskatchewan’s role within Canada.”

Belanger was involved in some of 2025’s biggest stories through his work on domestic and international trade as secretary of state for rural development, as well as his northern Saskatchewan constituency work during one of the worst wildfire seasons on record.

He met with evacuees and toured northern communities affected by wildfires. He thanked the fire departments across Canada that sent crews and equipment to the prairie provinces to help out. 

“We know these fires are going to happen year after year after year … and so Minister [of Emergency Management and Community Resilience Eleanor] Olszewski is doing a review of how we react, respond to and prepare for these fires,” Belanger said.

“There’s also a commitment into the budget regarding a water bomber fleet. I think it’s up to three water bombers that we’re looking at contributing to address this particular issue.”

Belanger said he sees rural Canada playing a significant role in a retooled economy that’s less reliant on the U.S. trading partnership, but acknowledged there are “infrastructure issues like the backlog at the Port of Vancouver” that must be fixed to strengthen international trade.

In Saskatchewan, he pointed to Foran Mining’s McIlvenna Bay project that’s on the Liberal government’s list of nation-building projects, the agricultural industry, and the potash and uranium industries as ways Saskatchewan can contribute to a new “one Canadian economy” envisioned by Carney.

“Rural Canada accounts for 13 per cent of our national population, and yet they contribute 27 per cent of the GDP we enjoy as a country,” Buckley said.

“So rural Canada is really doing their part.”