Gordon MacDonald (born 2 January 1960) is a

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

(SNP) politician. He has been the

Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; ; ) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The additional member system produces a form of proportional representation, where ...

(MSP) for the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency since

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Early life

MacDonald was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and educated at Cumbernauld High School, the Central College of Commerce and the Glasgow College of Technology. He worked as a

management accountant In management accounting or managerial accounting, managers use accounting information in decision-making and to assist in the management and performance of their control functions. Definition One simple definition of management accounting is th ...

for

Lothian Buses Lothian Buses is a major bus operator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the largest municipal bus company in the United Kingdom: the City of Edinburgh Council (through Transport for Edinburgh) owns 91%, Midlothian Council 5%, East Lothia ...

from 1989 to 2011.

Political career

MacDonald contested the seat of Edinburgh Pentlands in the

2011 Scottish Parliament election The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the Additional M ...

, and defeated the Conservative incumbent

David McLetchie David William McLetchie CBE (6 August 1952 – 12 August 2013) was a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 1999 to 2005. He was Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Edinburgh Pentlands co ...

by a margin of 1,758 votes. He was re-elected to the seat in the

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

elections. On 28 February 2025, MacDonald announced he would stand down at the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.

Personal life

MacDonald is married to Janet Campbell, who lives in Broxburn and is the SNP Councillor for Broxburn, Uphall and Winchburgh.

References

External links

*
Gordon MacDonald
constituency website
Local SNP website
covering Gordon MacDonald's constituency, Edinburgh Pentlands 1960 births Living people Politicians from Glasgow People from Cumbernauld Alumni of Glasgow Caledonian University Members of the Scottish Parliament 2011–2016 Scottish accountants Scottish National Party MSPs Members of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh constituencies Members of the Scottish Parliament 2016–2021 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2021–2026 People educated at Cumbernauld Academy Politicians from North Lanarkshire {{MSP-stub