CALGARY—A former member of a United Conservative constituency association in Southern Alberta delivered a blistering rebuttal Wednesday to party leader Jason Kenney’s characterization of a recent slew of resignations.

Mark Hudson was one of six board members who departed the UCP Livingstone-MacLeod constituency association earlier this month. In a statement to media Wednesday morning, Hudson said he left because of personal attacks and bullying by UCP board members over his co-operation with an investigation into Jeff Callaway’s short-lived 2017 leadership campaign.

“It is unfortunate that the UCP party, a party which Kenny promised to be grassroots driven and focused on eradicating entitlement, corruption and top-down rule, has ultimately fallen to this,” Hudson, once the association’s vice-president of fundraising and events, wrote in the statement.

Alberta election commissioner Lorne Gibson has been digging into alleged “irregular financial contributions” made to Callaway’s candidacy, which has been accused of being a “kamikaze mission” orchestrated so Callaway could aggressively attack rival Brian Jean on Kenney’s behalf.

“The only campaign I ran was our unity campaign,” Kenney said Wednesday at an unrelated press conference, responding to reporter questions about Callaway’s campaign.

He said the local UCP MLA, Pat Stier, and other members told him that the investigation and alleged bullying were not the reason for the resignations. Kenney said that, in a handful of ridings where a favoured candidate lost, people felt slighted, and that this is the consequence of contested nominations.

“I’m just not going to be spending the next several weeks talking about personality conflicts,” Kenney said.

He added that the board members who resigned make up “a fraction of a fraction of a per cent of the two thousand local volunteers who sit on UCP boards.”

Three associates of the UCP have been disciplined for their activities around the Callaway campaign, though the full nature of those activities is unclear. The commissioner fined two of the associates, while the party removed the third as a candidate in the upcoming election.

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The investigation began soon after an audio clip surfaced in December featuring longtime political organizer and conservative Wendy Adam discussing a plot to run Callaway as a “kamikaze mission.” Hudson revealed publicly Wednesday that he was the one who recorded the conversation.

In response to questions about the clip, Adam previously told the Star she was focused on “defeating the NDP (in the 2019 provincial election), not the divisive nature and games of those who do not have a similar view.”

Callaway has denied that his campaign was anything but legitimate.

“While the vast majority of the (constituency association) board has been supportive of me, I cannot continue given the increasing gravity of the election commissioner’s investigation, for I feel the bullying would simply worsen,” Hudson wrote. “I cannot simply hide away in a corner and shut up.”

Hudson also refuted suggestions by Kenney and UCP MLA Jason Nixon that the recent exodus of UCP Livingstone-Macleod board members was driven by bitterness over the results of a recent nomination race.

Five members of the constituency association, including president Maureen Moncrieff, abruptly resigned following a March 7 board meeting over concerns the party was failing to adhere to its so-called “grassroots guarantee.” A sixth member left earlier after she chose not to renew her party membership.

Kenney downplayed the departures, suggesting the disgruntled members left after their preferred candidate lost the recent nomination race to Roger Reid.

“Perhaps these are people who didn’t like the outcome of that nomination,” Kenney told reporters at a March 8 press conference. “It may have something to do with the fact that they were the supporters of one of the three candidates who were not nominated.”

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Hudson fired back Wednesday, saying he had no issue with the nomination process in the riding. It was “fair, neutral and honest,” he said, and Reid is the “rightful winner.”

Kenney’s and Nixon’s comments alluding to disgruntled members were “ignorant, divisive and unfounded,” he added.

“Ironically, it would seem those of us who speak up ... or assist in the investigations are quickly silenced or bullied into submission. There is now nothing left for me other than to walk away from the board, so I can stand up to this bullying.”

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