Researching Stuart Mcdonald

Stuart McDonald was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota. He graduated from Grand Forks Central High School in 1949. He attended the University of North Dakota for two years, before entering the United States Air Force in 1951. Following his return, he became vice-president of the McDonald Clothing Company, located in Grand Forks. The only regularly published editorial cartoonist in the Dakotas, McDonald's cartoons explored a myriad of local, state, national and international issues. He won three George Washington Honor Medals from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. He also served two terms as a Republican in the North Dakota House of Representatives. McDonald also spent time in Denver, Colorado, and Jamestown, North Dakota, before retiring in 2001.

McDonald now lives in Newburgh, Indiana where he does the political cartoons for the Evansville Courier & Press.

He was first elected at the general election in May 2015, unseating incumbent Labour MP and Shadow Pensions Minister, Gregg McClymont. McDonald is the first SNP MP to represent Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East (Margaret Bain was MP for Dumbartonshire East which covered Cumbernauld in the early-1970s), which covers parts of the North Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire council areas.

He was born in Rochester, the son of farmer Angus McDonald. He attended Melbourne University, where he received a Master of Science degree, and worked for the CSIRO. From 1953 he farmed at Timmering East near Rochester, and became active in the Primary Producers' Union and the Victorian Farmers' Union. He was also a member of the Country Party, and was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Northern Province in 1967. He was deputy leader of the National Party (as it had been renamed) in the Council from 1973 to 1976 and leader from 1976 to 1979. In 1979 his province was abolished, and he unsuccessfully ran for Bendigo Province. He then became state president of the National Party from 1982 to 1986 and federal president from 1987 to 1990. From 1990 to 2002 he was chairman of the Rural Finance Corporation. He died in December 2017 at the age of 89.