Conservative political strategist and Windsor native Nick Kouvalis — who masterminded Rob Ford’s election as Toronto mayor — is facing a criminal charge over an incident at a Burlington restaurant.
Kouvalis, 41, is charged with breaking into and entering a Kelseys restaurant in Burlington on Sept. 26.
He was arrested along with a female and both “appeared intoxicated” at the time, said Const. Colin MacLeod, an investigator with Halton Regional Police.
Toronto-based criminal defence lawyer Dirk Derstine, who is representing Kouvalis, said his client does not deny being at the business location in question, “but he emphatically insists he had no criminal intent on that evening.”
Derstine confirmed that the female arrested with Kouvalis was Sarah Warry-Poljanski — who sought this year to be the Ontario PC Party’s candidate for the Hamilton Mountain riding. “They knew each other through politics,” Derstine said.
Warry-Poljanski lost the candidacy to Esther Pauls at a riding association meeting in Hamilton on the night of Sept. 25. The incident at the Kelseys in Burlington occurred some hours later.
“There are allegations that he entered a bar illegally, and that he took things inside,” Derstine said.
Derstine declined to comment further on the incident. He said Kouvalis is scheduled for a court appearance in January.
Born in Windsor, Kouvalis has been a controversial behind-the-scenes figure in Canadian conservative politics for years. He managed the successful election campaigns of both Rob Ford and John Tory to become Mayor of Toronto.
Last January, Maclean’s magazine published a piece headlined “How Nick Kouvalis turns candidates into winners.”
Earlier this year, Kouvalis was tied to the campaign of Kellie Leitch for leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada — but he removed himself from the management role in February, saying he had “become a distraction to the campaign.”
Kouvalis has also had previous troubles with the law. In the spring of 2016, he pleaded guilty to a drunk driving charge after he crashed his Lexus into a culvert in Tecumseh.
At the time, Kouvalis described the arrest and subsequent conviction as a “wakeup call.” He posted on social media that he has struggled with alcohol addiction since 2011, and has sought counselling and spent time in rehabilitation.
In 2005, Kouvalis was charged in relation to allegedly uttering a death threat against Jeff Watson — who was then Conservative MP for Essex. Kouvalis had managed Watson’s campaign for election as MP for Windsor-Tecumseh.
The case went to trial, and Kouvalis was acquitted.
