{"id":195037,"date":"2026-09-03T21:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/195037\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:22:11","slug":"winnipeg-mayoral-candidate-kevin-klein-faces-fresh-attacks-as-he-makes-campaign-official-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/195037\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg mayoral candidate Kevin Klein faces fresh attacks as he makes campaign official"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former city councillor and PC cabinet minister Kevin Klein faced fresh attacks within minutes of registering his second campaign to become Winnipeg’s mayor.<\/p>\n

Klein, the president and CEO of the company that owns the Winnipeg Sun, visited the city clerk’s office Thursday morning to officially become the 12th candidate to compete in this fall’s mayoral race.<\/p>\n

He was still filling out the paperwork when the city’s largest union accused him of being beholden to U.S. interests, while incumbent mayoral candidate Scott Gillingham highlighted the former councillor’s opposition to freeing up more city funds to fight a police headquarters lawsuit.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500, which represents thousands of City of Winnipeg workers, said Klein has advocated in the Winnipeg Sun for a softer position on U.S. trade, placing him offside with most Canadians.<\/p>\n

“The last thing Winnipeg needs is a mayor who’ll bend a knee to American interests,” CUPE 500 president Patrick Troughton said in the statement.<\/p>\n

Klein called the CUPE 500 statement a lie.<\/p>\n

“I’m very Canadian. I’m proud to be Canadian. I carry the Canadian flag very proudly and always have carried the Canadian flag very proudly,” Klein said at city hall on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people are saying a lot of things about me, and it would seem to me it’s probably because Scott Gillingham seems a little afraid to stand up to his record.”<\/p>\n

CUPE 500 spokesperson Garrett Williams said his union’s comment is based partly on an Aug. 29 Sun column by Klein headlined “Strong leadership isn’t trading jabs for applause,” in which Klein criticized Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew for inflaming Canada-U.S. trade tensions by hurling insults at Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

In a column posted earlier this summer, Klein said he attended a gathering at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa and defended U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra’s approach to cross-border diplomacy.<\/p>\n

Klein said earlier this week he paid his own way to Ottawa for that trip and met with Hoekstra at a gathering attended by other Canadian business leaders.<\/p>\n

“He told me he regularly meets with business owners from across the country and invites farmers to his residence to understand their concerns first-hand. That is not the behaviour of a man trying to bully a smaller neighbour into becoming a 51st state,” Klein wrote in the July 4 column, headlined “The real Pete Hoekstra mainstream media won’t show you.”<\/p>\n

“It is the behaviour of someone doing the unglamorous work of diplomacy.”<\/p>\n

Klein said Thursday he wrote that column before Canada-U.S. tensions began to rise again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It didn’t get as ugly back then as it is now,” Klein said. “I think [Prime Minister] Mark Carney did an excellent job by walking away from the table. I think he’s handling this in the very way that we wanted him to handle it.”<\/p>\n

Vote against police HQ lawsuit funding<\/p>\n

Gillingham, meanwhile, issued a press release that drew attention to Klein’s 2020 vote against a city council authorization of funds<\/a> to pursue a lawsuit over the construction of Winnipeg’s police headquarters.<\/p>\n

Klein, who served one term as the councillor for Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood from 2018 to 2022, was one of two members of council to vote against the authorization<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city’s legal action against former chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl, contractor Caspian Construction and other defendants resulted in a judgment against Sheegl<\/a> and a settlement with the Caspian defendants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Together, the legal action recovered nearly $30 million in damages and settlements, Gillingham noted in a statement, saying that “at a pivotal moment, Klein looked at the biggest scandal in Winnipeg’s history and told city council to walk away.”<\/p>\n

\"Ontario's<\/p>\n

In 2020, Klein was one of two members of council who voted against a city council authorization of funds to pursue a lawsuit over the construction of Winnipeg’s police headquarters. He said Thursday he was not sure at the time what it would cost the city in legal fees, and is pleased the city recovered funds following the lawsuit. (Trevor Brine\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Klein said Thursday he did not vote in favour of the authorization because he was not sure what it would cost the city in legal fees. He said he is pleased the city recovered funds and is happy in this instance to be wrong.<\/p>\n

Klein also responded to statements made by Gillingham and provincial Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine drawing attention to his past work for convicted sex offender Peter Nygard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In response to Fontaine’s social media video, Klein, who spent almost a year as environment minister in Heather Stefanson’s PC government, said cabinet ministers should hold themselves to a higher standard.<\/p>\n

“You’re in a higher office, you’re representing the province of Manitoba, you’re representing the Crown,” Klein said.<\/p>\n

He also said he is considering legal action against Gillingham after the incumbent called him a “Caribbean political fixer” for Nygard.<\/p>\n

“He started a smear campaign based on lies,” Klein said of Gillingham.<\/p>\n

“Thousands and thousands of people worked for Peter Nygard. Yes, he is a bad man and he is getting exactly what he deserves. But thousands of people worked for Nygard and they should not be painted by what that man did.”<\/p>\n

Gillingham said he welcomes the discovery process if Klein decides to sue.<\/p>\n

There are 10 other candidates for mayor: Mazher Alam, Johnny Calder\u00f3n, Chris Clacio, Brad Gross, Umar Hayat, Joshua Pagdato, Noah Redden, Zachary Uminski, Michael Vogiatzakis and Don Woodstock.<\/p>\n

Nominations close Sept. 22. Election day is Oct. 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former city councillor and PC cabinet minister Kevin Klein faced fresh attacks within minutes of registering his second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[351,1642,1957,59149,61144,60197,2878,84],"class_list":["post-195037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-canadian","tag-city-council","tag-city-hall","tag-gillingham","tag-gillingham-thousands","tag-klein","tag-u-s","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}