Gordon is a largely rural constituency where forestry, agriculture and food processing are the most important industries. Beef production is important but was badly hit by the BSE crisis.
Other industries include paper at Inverurie and engineering supplies for the oil and gas industries based at Ellon. Residential development in towns such as Inverurie and Ellon have resulted in many people who work in Aberdeen's oil industry living here.
Gordon has a recent history of Liberal representation, but Liberal Democrat Malcolm Bruce has had to fight to retain his seat in recent elections. He won Gordon from the Conservatives in 1983 and increased his majority to over 10,000 in 1987, but in 1992 that was slashed to only 274 votes. The boundary changes made this notionally a Conservative seat before the 1997 elections, but the anti-Tory backlash in Scotland ensured that Mr Bruce managed to hold on with a 7,000 majority.
Nora Radcliffe won the seat for the Liberal Democrats in the Scottish Parliament with a reduced, in comparison with 1997, but solid majority of over 4,000 votes with the SNP overtaking the Tories for second.
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