David Buckingham (politician)

Buckingham's first foray into politics was at the municipal level. He served one year on the Borden council before serving two terms as mayor from 2009 to 2015. He resigned as mayor after receiving the Saskatchewan Party nomination for the new Saskatoon Westview district ahead of the 2016 provincial election.^[2] Buckingham stated that his interest in provincial politics stemmed from working with the government on flood relief in Borden in 2013.^[2]

In the 2016 election, Buckingham pulled off an upset by defeating Cam Broten, leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party (NDP), by a narrow margin of 232 votes.^[3][4] Buckingham was re-elected by a wider margin in the 2020 provincial election, taking 54% of the tally in Saskatoon Westview.^[5] During his time in the government caucus, Buckingham was a backbench MLA and served a stint as government caucus chair.^[1]

In the 2024 provincial election, Buckingham was unseated by April ChiefCalf of the NDP in another close race—in the final tally, Buckingham was defeated by a margin of 74 votes.^[6] In the lead-up to the election, it was revealed by former Speaker Randy Weekes that Buckingham had used a racial slur in a 2023 caucus meeting.^[7] Buckingham was reported by a staffer, who later quit; Buckingham was required to undertake sensitivity training as a result.^[8] After the incident came to light, Buckingham publicly apologized, calling it a "really dumb mistake".^[9]