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UCP staying silent on Livingstone-Macleod candidate's disqualification

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Alberta's United Conservative Party (UCP) has yet to comment on the reported disqualification of its candidate in the riding of Livingstone-Macleod.

Nadine Wellwood revealed her disqualification on Monday night through a statement posted to her website.

In it, she said she received a letter on Nov. 7 stating the party candidate selection committee (PCSC) rejected her application "based on a referral from the executive director of the UCP."

"The reasoning given for my disqualification, most are conjecture, or a matter of personal opinion based off of social media posts I had interacted with, as little as a 'like' or a retweet, in the past," said Wellwood in her statement.

"Similar disqualifications were conducted under the previous UCP leader, in ridings like Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre or Cardston-Siksika, to ensure a preferred candidate would be selected."

"Of course Ms. Wellwood is saying that's the reason she was disqualified, because of that dissonance," said Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams.

"We know a previous board in that constituency resigned in protest against the top-down leadership decisions that were being made in the riding."

As of Tuesday at 3 p.m., the UCP had yet to publicly address the disqualification.

Williams says tensions have been high in the UCP for some time, and many are related to COVID-19 policies.

"Those who are buying into the far-right – on vaccines, on the freedom convoy protests and activities, the availability of alternative remedies and so forth – those folks are not only well represented in certain regions in the province, they are now well represented on the board of the United Conservative Party," she said.

"They're going to push for what they think, is the best policy for the party."

Kevin Van Tighem announced in the middle of October that he would seek the NDP nomination for Livingstone-MacLeod. Van Tighem says he's been knocking on a lot of doors in the riding and talking to residents.

"The kinds of people that used to gravitate to the Peter Lougheed conservatives are now popping up as candidates in the in the NDP," he said.

"So there's been this shift, I think, politically. The center has shifted. The NDP are in it, and the conservatives have moved way off to the fringe, and it's really disconcerting to an awful lot of conservatives, because they feel abandoned, (like) they don't have a home."

Van Tighem says the cracks are showing in the party and he doesn't think the disqualification of Wellwood to be helping matters.

"The reason I stepped up was simply because there has to be somebody who was the grown up in the room," he said.

"Who respects their constituency and cares about the place, and they're not going to get it from UCP, so somebody's got to step up and that's the one I'm taking on."

Williams says the UCP need to unite before the coming election.

"How do you quell the dissidents within the party? So that you don't have a leadership challenge being brought against you while at the same time trying to prepare for the next election?" said Williams.

"And of course, every time those polling numbers dip and it looks like the chances of winning the next election are more remote, the challenges from within the party are going to be emboldened."

In her statement, Wellwood said she would appeal her disqualification.

"As the local candidate selection committee for Livingstone-Macleod unanimously put forward my name in support of my nomination to become the candidate on record, I believe that the party elite have over-reached their authority, and this action itself threatens the integrity of the UCP by denying the grassroots members and their chosen local committee members the choice in who represents them in the legislature," she said.

CTV News reached out to Wellwood and the UCP for interviews but haven't heard back.

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