John Waddell selected in West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine

News from Robert Smith’s former constituency with the selection of John Waddell in the formerly held seat of West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine. Robert Smith was the seat’s MP for 18 years until 2015.

The seat is also mainly the successor to Kincardine and Deeside following boundary changes.* It was best known to the political world for a by-election in which Nicol Stephen was elected to Parliament and best known to me for the first time I went campaigning on polling day. And apologies for taking 27 years to thank you, Willie Rennie, but your cheerful and welcoming face at by-election HQ is a large part of why I got hooked on taking part in elections rather than being put off.

Upon being selected, John Waddell said:

I’m excited to be standing for my home constituency and especially one that has such a strong liberal tradition, having been represented by Liberal Democrats Sir Robert Smith in Westminster and Mike Rumbles MSP in Holyrood.

Growing up in Banchory, at the heart of this constituency, I always saw how hard Liberal Democrats worked at all levels of governance to represent and advocate for their constituents, making a positive difference for our community.

I will be a strong pro-UK and pro-EU voice – promoting the views of this constituency who rejected independence and rejected Brexit.

As I have done in the recent past, I will advocate for better local mental health services, in particular for children and young people, for better transport links and work to protect the long-term security of our energy sector.

There’s a full list of Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate selections so far here.

* Way before even that, a constituency in the same area elected the now forgotten but quite remarkable James Davidson. As Jonathan Calder points out, Davidson climbed the Eiger, had a career at a TV presenter and served in the navy. No wonder he was also briefly tipped as a future leader of the Liberal Party.

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