VANCOUVER – A two-time former Liberal candidate disqualified from a nomination race in British Columbia is rejecting allegations she “misrepresented” her resume in her candidacy application.

Wendy Yuan received word late last week that she had been barred from running in the new Vancouver-area federal riding of Steveston-Richmond East, prompting all but one of the district’s Liberal constituency association executives to step down in protest. The lone executive not to follow suit was reported to be on vacation.

Yuan denied misrepresenting any information in her application.

“I was green-lit twice, don’t forget — everything was the same, nothing differed,” she said in an interview on Wednesday. “My life is an open book. I’ve run for public office three times.”

A Liberal party source told The Canadian Press that Yuan’s application was stopped partway through the vetting process after it became apparent she had allegedly misrepresented elements of her resume.

Yuan said she hoped the party wasn’t trying to shift the focus away from the real reason for her disqualification. She said she brought up concerns with the party over what she called questionable fundraising techniques used by former Liberal MP Raymond Chan, which she believes may have played a role in her nomination upset.

Along with protest resignations by local riding executives, longtime Liberal party organizer Mike Hillman stepped down as membership chairman for B.C. over what he called an “unfathomable” move on the part of the party’s green-light committee to oust Yuan.

Hillman has been involved with the Liberals since 1968 and has served in various leadership capacities, including two terms as the party’s national vice-president for English. He was Yuan’s campaign chairman.

Hillman said he can’t understand how the party could treat someone with such disregard, especially after Yuan’s work to register thousands of new party members.

“You don’t keep somebody … on a string, working hard to build a team and build membership, when in the end you’re going to walk away from them,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “That’s not the right way to do it.”

Hillman called Yuan “absolutely solid” and referred to her contributions to the party as “tremendous.”

Yuan signed up close to 3,000 new members — a significant portion of the roughly 4,000 registered in the riding, said Hillman.

For her part, Yuan said she was “very disappointed” by the decision.

“The immediate thing that came to my head was the 3,000 members. I said, ‘How am I going to tell them?’” she said. “They trusted the system and they had faith.”

Lawyer and former federal politician Joe Peschisolido will represent the Liberals in the riding. He was acclaimed at a nomination meeting on Tuesday.

Yuan has run for the Liberals in Vancouver in the past two federal elections, but came up short both times against the NDP. Hillman headed her campaign in both those races as well.

Both Yuan and Hillman said they are still party members and will remain involved in the federal campaign.

The Liberal party has held 306 nomination meetings across the country out of a total of 338 ridings.

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