EDMONTON—A former United Conservative Party nominee hopeful has accused the party of denying his appeal because he “refused to lie” for the party.

“I was disqualified because I refused to lie when the party asked me to, unlike the two other candidates,” read the post published on the ‘Lance Coulter for Edmonton-West Henday’ Facebook page Saturday.

Coulter became embroiled in scandal alongside UCP nominee candidates Leila Houle and Nicole Williams when they were photographed beside members of the Soldiers of Odin — dressed in marked T-shirts, hats and vests — at a pub-night constituency event in Edmonton Oct. 5.

The Soldiers of Odin is a far-right anti-immigration group which began in Finland and has ties with neo-Nazis. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network considers The Soldiers of Odin an extremist group, though the group denies being racist.

In a joint statement, Houle and Williams denied knowing who the Soldiers of Odin were, and the United Conservative Party claimed the far-right groups crashed their party uninvited. Members of the Soldiers of Odin, however, appear to have responded to the Facebook event guest list in advance.

Coulter took a somewhat different approach, defending posing with the Soldiers of Odin for photographs by describing the members as “polite,” saying he knew who they were and willingly engaged them in conversation.

“I did a little research before I talked to them and had a general idea of who they were and understood that there could be a certain level of conflict there,” said Coulter, during a party event on Wednesday.

“Nevertheless, from my understanding, their actions here in Canada are more motivated around community organization and my quick look on the Facebook page was guys helping a homeless vet, feeding food at a soup kitchen and painting a church.”

Coulter was disqualified from running for the party the next day.

“We strongly disagree with your seemingly sympathetic assessment of Soldiers of Odin and are frankly disturbed with your cavalier attitude taken to a hate group attending a United Conservative Party (UCP) event. This incident has resulted in reputational harm to our party and its many members,” a letter to Coulter from the UCP nominations committee said.

In his post Sunday, Coulter said his appeal to be reinstated as a candidate for nominee with the UCP in Edmonton-West Henday was denied without the opportunity to speak to the board.

“I condemn racism in the strongest terms,” the post read. “However ask yourself, can you combat racism in a meaningful way without talking to racists?”

The post goes on to blame the denial of his appeal on his unwillingness to lie to satisfy the interests of the party, “unlike the other two candidates,” clearly implicating Houle and Williams.

When reached by phone Sunday, Coulter declined commenting further.

In a statement shared with StarMetro Sunday, Janice Harrington, executive director of the UCP, wrote, “the party did not ask Mr. Coulter nor the other nomination contestants ‘to lie.’”

“Mr. Coulter choose not to disclose that he was well aware of what the Soldiers of Odin was. In doing so, he demonstrated that he did not have the best interests of the party in mind.

“Ms. Houle and Ms. Williams have both been clear that they were not aware of what Soldiers of Odin was, nor what ‘SOO stood for,” Harrington continued. “We have no reason to doubt their statements.”

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Neither Williams nor Houle returned calls for comment by the time of publication.

With files from Kieran Leavitt

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