Bruce Wilson is the Liberal Democrat candidate for Edinburgh North & Leith.

He is a relative newcomer to politics as he only joined the party eighteen months ago. We asked first why he is standing as a candidate.

Bruce explained : “I got active in politics when I realised that Brexit looked like it was a serious thing that was going to happen.

“And I was coming to the end of  my career in the Royal Marines. I just couldn’t stand by and let the chaos continue. So I thought, why not get active?

“I joined the Liberal Democrats and here I am as a candidate two years later.

“I’m originally from a tiny little village in Highland Perthshire called Amulree. I went to university in Aberdeen. So I did an undergrad in economics and a masters in Strategic Studies. And then from there, I went on to join the Royal Marines as commando officer. I was in charge of teams around the world.

“So locally the most important things to me right now are all about the environment and how that affects us. It’s a global issue, but we can act locally.

“Recently, I was on Wardie beach, and you can see the state of the pollution that comes in especially when we have heavy rains. First of all, as Liberal Democrats we need to stop Brexit. That is the most important thing, and it’s our first priority. After that need to build a brighter future. Most of that revolves around how we can make a sustainable economy that works for everyone.”

“I’m fortunate to live in one of the best places in all of Scotland. Edinburgh North & Leith is a fantastic area, but increasingly it’s less affordable for families to live in. And we’ve got an ageing demographic population.

“Those are challenges and both are national ones, but they really affect us locally. What Liberal Democrats want to do is build more houses. In Scotland we’ve seen a distinct lack of that in the past few years in the current administration, but we want to make sure that we’ve got the services in place to make sure that as people age naturally, that they can have the health services that are there to support them.”

Bruce now works as part of Standard Life in a project management role, and he loves the work-life balance that Edinburgh brings. In his spare time, he enjoys hill-walking and is enthusiastic about the great outdoors, whatever the weather.

The other candidates that we know of at present are Iain McGill (Conservative) Gordon Munro (Labour) Heather Astbury (Renew Party) and Deidre Brock (SNP) who has been the MP here since 2015 with a majority of 5597. Ms Brock held the seat in the 2017 election with a reduced majority of 1625.

Edinburgh North and Leith
ASTBURY, Heather Jane – Renew
BROCK, Deidre Leanne – Scottish National Party (SNP)
BURGESS, Steve – Scottish Green Party
MCGILL, Iain – Scottish Conservative and Unionist
MUNRO, Gordon John – Labour and Co-operative Party
SPEIRS, Robert – Brexit Party
WILSON, Bruce Roy – Scottish Liberal Democrats

Website | + posts

Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.