Mayoral candidates Klein, Vogiatzakis continue to snipe over inducement allegations

Winnipeg mayoral candidate Mike Vogiatzakis told reporters Monday he will contact the city clerk to report his allegation that rival Kevin Klein tried to get him to drop out of the race.

Vogiatzakis and Klein both doubled down and continued to point fingers a day after accusing each other of offering the other a position at city hall, if victorious in the Oct. 28 election, in exchange for a withdrawal.

“Do I want to get him charged? Not really. I don’t want to destroy anybody’s life,” Vogiatzakis said at a campaign event.

“Kevin’s a good guy. I always liked Kevin. I thought he was a friend of mine, but he’s not. Kevin uses leverage to get ahead, and he tried to use me as leverage.”

Provincial legislation prohibits anyone from offering a bribe or inducement during an election. Vogiatzakis, a funeral director, and Klein have denied the allegations, and accused each other of lying.

Klein, president and CEO of the company that publishes the Winnipeg Sun, was also on the defensive over a Sunday column in which the author questioned the deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools.

The headline stated: “Grave misdirection: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Klein said he was “appalled” by the column, but he’s not involved in the newspaper’s operations during the mayoral campaign. The column was condemned by the Southern Chiefs’ Organization.

“If I had been in charge… I would not have approved that column,” he said at a campaign event. “I apologize to the Southern Chiefs’ Organization or any member of the community that was offended by that.”

Vogiatzakis, meanwhile, claimed a member of Klein’s team phoned him Aug. 31 — a day before Klein confirmed he would enter the race — and asked him to withdraw in exchange for a position on the Winnipeg Police Board.

Klein countered, alleging Vogiatzakis’ camp approached his staff at the Sept. 14 transit debate to offer him a position in the mayor’s office if he stepped aside.

Klein said he wasn’t involved in the conversation, and his team declined the offer on the spot.

“I understand Mike’s gone through some terrible things with the very violent death of his brother, and I feel great pain for him,” Klein said at a campaign event.

“My mother was murdered. I understand that pain. Sometimes we hold things in and then we explode. I did that too before I seeked (sic) help and dealt with it.”

Vogiatzakis’ brother, Kyriakos, was fatally assaulted outside the Cork & Flame restaurant, which he owned, in 2024. Klein’s mother was killed by her husband in 1991.

Klein said he is the victim of a smear campaign by Vogiatzakis, days after Vogiatzakis was criticized by candidates because his primary residence is outside Winnipeg.

Vogiatzakis said Tim Diack, a police officer and 2018 mayoral candidate, offered him a spot on the police board if he withdrew. Vogiatzakis said he recorded the call. He was unable to find the audio recording on his phone when reporters asked to listen to it.

Klein said Diack is not a member of his campaign team. Diack could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Klein, a former police board chair, said Vogiatzakis has a criminal record and therefore cannot hold the same position. Vogiatzakis’ disclosure statement lists assault and contempt of court convictions from the late 1980s.

He said the assault occurred when he grabbed a young hockey player and threw him against a wall while protecting an older fellow coach, while the contempt of court occurred when he “said some things I probably shouldn’t have said” in front of a judge who oversaw the assault case.

Klein, meanwhile, said Vogiatzakis’ campaign director, Todd Dube, offered him a position if he pulled out of the race.

Dube said he told Klein before the Sept. 14 debate began that Vogiatzakis would not withdraw under any circumstances.

“I said, ‘However, if at any point that you leave the race, Mike would have a place for you at his table. We were inviting him in kind of a co-operative way,” Dube said, referring to Vogiatzakis’ proposed crime task force.

“If Kevin took that at the transit debate as a deal, that if he dropped out tomorrow that he would get a job from Mike, then that’s just his misunderstanding. I was simply responding to his prior offer, which he initiated.”

Klein and Vogiatzakis are among 12 people running for mayor. The other candidates are Mazher Alam, Johnny Calderon, Chris Clacio, Tracey Drexler, incumbent Scott Gillingham, Brad Gross, Umar Hayat, Joshua Pagdato, Noah Redden and Don Woodstock.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca