The potential Livingstone-Macleod UCP candidate who was disqualified last week has now had her appeal rejected.

Last week, Nadine Wellwood announced that she'd been disqualified by the candidate selection committee due to controversial social media posts she had interacted with.

She appealed the decision in hopes that the newly elected UCP board would allow her to run in the riding.

On Nov. 12, she announced the appeal had been rejected.

Wellwood says she was told the decision was made due to social media posts she had engaged with.

In the week following the news of her disqualification, there was speculation that comparisons of COVID protocols to the German Nazi regime of the 1930s and 1940s were among the main concerns that led toward the disqualification, with a video titled "7 out of 10 Canadian would support Hitler 4K" from Wellwood's YouTube having circulated around social media.

While Wellwood says several posts were outlined by the board, she believes the decision to disqualify her came from her echoing calls to fire members of the UCP cabinet over the arrests relating to COVID.

"[Smith] had expressed some concerns about my comment that I had called on her cabinet ministers to go to jail, but just to clarify, I had called on Jason Kenney's cabinet ministers to go to jail. That was solely around calls for justice and the decision to send pastors to jail and sending innocent men and women for holding true to their principles and values to jail."

She believes Smith was acting in defence of her cabinet, rather than rejecting Wellwood's views on COVID protocols.

"All of these were things that Danielle Smith herself had spoken out about, and my opinions and her opinions on those issues, they're not dissimilar. I don't really think that that was going to make or break the decision, or at least I would think not because that would be very hypocritical."

Wellwood says many Livingstone-Macleod constituents were in agreeance with her that cabinet members should be removed due to the enforcement of COVID protocols.

She says many rural conservatives were keenly waiting for the results of her appeal, viewing it as a test for Smith.

"From the people who have called me and supported me, they saw this, truly, as her real test as to whether or not she would stand on principle or she would choose to pivot, as the media has been saying, into more of a politically neutral, more acceptable position. I think, sadly, she does have some damage control she needs to do here because no matter what I say or what my opinion is, what matters most is what the people who supported her see as the result of this decision. My initial take on that is that they feel very betrayed."