Alberta United Conservative Party member Nadine Wellwood — who was trying to win the nomination in Livingstone-Macleod, had her appeal over her disqualification as a candidate denied by the party..“It is certainly not the outcome that we had hoped for,” said Wellwood in a Saturday statement. .“This decision is indeed very disappointing as it was truly my hope that under a new leader, the old party politics would be abandoned.”.Wellwood confirmed on Monday she had been disqualified as an Alberta UCP candidate. .“I believe that the party elite have overreached 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. .She said her social media activity was part of the reason for her disqualification, adding most of the problematic posts pertained to “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.”.The statement said the insurmountable issue was her calls for justice. When former Alberta premier Jason Kenney and his cabinet ministers were sending pastors to jail, she had called for them to go to jail. .Wellwood said she doesn't regret or intend on apologizing for her comments. She said these politicians were “rewarded with new cabinet positions and have yet to offer an apology for the thousands of lives they have destroyed.”.The former candidate went on to say the views shared in her tweets are ones held by many conservatives in Livingstone-Macleod, and their voices have been silenced. She added people in her riding wanted “a strong, principled, and knowledgeable voice that was reflective of their own views, not a cherry-picked Party approved Candidate that will tow the party line.” .“Sadly, rural ridings are and will continue to be overshadowed and undervalued, their votes taken for granted, and their money spent to gain favour in urban centres,” she said.
