Lisa Helps (born April 6, 1976) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician and former

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

, with her inauguration taking place on December 4, 2014. She narrowly defeated incumbent mayor Dean Fortin in the 2014 municipal election."Lisa Helps elected new Victoria mayor"

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, November 16, 2014. She is the second woman, after Gretchen Brewin, to be elected mayor of the city. Helps did not run for a third term in office in the

2022 British Columbia municipal elections The 2022 British Columbia municipal elections were held on 15 October 2022. Municipal elections took place in all municipalities and regional district electoral areas in the Canadian province of British Columbia to elect mayors, school board ...

, and will be succeeded as mayor by

Marianne Alto This is a list of mayors of Victoria, the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The mayor leads Victoria City Council, the city's governing body, and is elected to a four-year term. The current mayor is Marianne Alto, who was ...

Career

Helps was first elected to

Victoria City Council The Victoria City Council is the governing body of the City of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The council consists of the mayor plus eight councillors. A deputy mayor is appointed monthly Monthly usually refers to the scheduling of someth ...

as a city councillor in the 2011 municipal election."First-term Victoria Coun. Lisa Helps will take run at mayor's job"
'' Victoria Times-Colonist'', January 1, 2014. She has also worked as a

community organizer Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. Unlike those who promote more-consensual community bui ...

and activist,"A 'People-Centred' New Mayor for Victoria"
'' The Tyee'', November 19, 2014. including time in the role of executive director of a community microlending program. Her mayoral campaign revolved heavily around a proposal to launch a more ambitious plan to deal with the issues of

homelessness Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

and

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on af ...

in the city and was also boosted by voter frustration over delays in the

Johnson Street Bridge Four known bridges have spanned the narrows between the Inner Harbour and Upper Harbour of Victoria, British Columbia, connecting Johnson Street on the east shore with Esquimalt Road on the west shore. The current bridge is Canada's largest sin ...

construction project and a controversial

sewage treatment Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding en ...

plan that has been a dominant issue in the city's municipal politics for several years. At her inauguration ceremony as mayor, held on December 4, Helps declined to recite the traditional, though not legally required,

oath of allegiance An oath of allegiance is an oath whereby a subject or citizen acknowledges a duty of allegiance and swears loyalty to a monarch or a country. In modern republics, oaths are sworn to the country in general, or to the country's constitution. Fo ...

to Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states durin ...

, the Canadian monarch, explaining she does not hold any ideology against the Queen, but wanted to emphasise her opinion that Victoria is part of Songhees and

Esquimalt The Township of Esquimalt is a municipality at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It is bordered to the east by the provincial capital, Victoria, to the south by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the west by Esqui ...

territory. Helps was criticized by monarchists. In June 2017, the city of Victoria created the Witness Reconciliation Program and the City Family. The latter is a group composed of Mayor Helps, several Victoria city council members, and people appointed by the

and Songhees Nations' Councils. The City Family's objectives are to guide Victoria on how the city can respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)'s five calls to action intended for municipalities, and also to realize the TRC's awareness mandate on a local scale and to promote reconciliation in general. Helps oversaw the removal of the city's statue of John A. Macdonald from the front of Victoria City Hall, which took place three days after the city council voted for it on August 8, 2018. The decision was taken after one year of consultation and the support of the City Family. Helps was re-elected to a second term as mayor of Victoria in the 2018 municipal election."Lisa Helps re-elected for second term as Victoria mayor"
CTV Vancouver Island, October 20, 2018. In 2021, Helps spearheaded the cancellation of Canada Day celebrations after the Mayor and council concluded that marking the day would be damaging, citing "The history of our country’s genocidal relationship with First Nations".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helps, Lisa 1976 births Mayors of Victoria, British Columbia Politicians from London, Ontario Women mayors of places in British Columbia Living people 21st-century Canadian politicians 21st-century Canadian women politicians