You don’t often find me quoting from the pro-independnece paper The National, but I’m happy to do it today because they’ve done a really good profile of our top West of Scotland list candidate, Katy Gordon. She explains the influence Charles Kennedy and Jo Swinson had on her and how they inspired her campaigning spirit.

“I had always voted Liberal but sometimes you need a push to join, and I wanted to make sure Kennedy was leader,” Gordon remembers. “I did not join because I wanted to be involved in party politics but because of the Liberal ideas Charles Kennedy articulated.”

However, her abilities were soon recognised and she was asked to be a candidate in 2005 in Glasgow South West against Ian Davidson.

While her chances of winning were minimal, she discovered through campaigning with Jo Swinson in East Dunbartonshire that she loved hearing about what people were thinking, what their concerns were and what they needed.

“My professional life is all about helping people to aspire – to look at what is possible, help them to overcome obstacles and give them confidence to achieve what they are aiming for. It is often about giving hope to young people that they can change their lives. In political campaigning that is what we are doing too, and that is what I would do as an MSP.”

A key point in her political career came in 2007, when post offices were being closed all over the country. There were two in particular that Gordon thought could be saved – Hyndland and Kelvindale – so, although she had never run a campaign before, she knocked on doors, started a petition and involved the community council and the media. To her delight, both post offices were saved.

The thing about Katy is that she is tenacity in human form. She never, ever gives up. If she says she will do something, no obstacle in her way stands a chance. If she were elected, she would be a fabulous voice for equality, for diversity and for young people in Holyrood.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social