Lisa Helps (born April 6, 1976) is a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

politician, formerly the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, 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 responsibilitie ...

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 Dean Fortin (born March 1, 1959) served as mayor of Victoria, British Columbia, from 2008 to 2014. Dean Fortin was first elected to city council in 2002 and became the 51st Mayor of Victoria on November 15, 2008. He was sworn into office for a s ...

in the 2014 municipal election."Lisa Helps elected new Victoria mayor"

Global News Global News is the news and Current affairs (news format), current affairs division of the Canadian Global Television Network. The network is owned by Corus Entertainment, which oversees all of the network's national news programming as well as ...

, November 16, 2014. She is the second woman, after

Gretchen Brewin Patricia Gretchen Mann Brewin (born December 23, 1938), known as Gretchen, is a Canadian politician. Brewin was born in Ottawa, Ontario to mother Marjorie Mann and Walter Mann on December 23, 1938. Gretchen has one sister, Susan Mann. She gra ...

, 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 in Canada, Municipal elections took place in all municipalities and regional district electoral areas in the Provinces and territories of Canada, ...

, and was succeeded as mayor by

Marianne Alto Marianne Alto is a Canadian politician, who has served as mayor of Victoria, British Columbia since November 3, 2022. She was first elected to Victoria City Council in a by-election in November 2010, following the resignation of Sonya Chandler. T ...

Career

Helps was first elected to

Victoria City Council The Victoria City Council is the Local government, governing body of the City of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.. The council consists of the mayor plus eight councillors. A deputy mayor is appointed wikt:Monthly, monthly. The councillors a ...

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 The ''Times Colonist'' is an English-language daily newspaper in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was formed by the September 2, 1980 merger of the ''Victoria Daily Times'', established in 1884, and the ''British Colonist'' (later the ' ...

'', 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 buil ...

and activist,"A 'People-Centred' New Mayor for Victoria"
''

The Tyee The Tyee is an independent daily news website based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in November 2003 as an alternative to corporate media. Articles in The Tyee focus on politics, culture, and life. The Tyee was founded b ...

'', November 19, 2014. including time in the role of executive director of a community

microlending Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically do not have access to traditional banking services due to a lack of collateral, steady employment, and a verifiable credit history. The primar ...

program. Her mayoral campaign revolved heavily around a proposal to launch a more ambitious plan to deal with the issues of

homelessness Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

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 ...

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

Johnson Street Bridge The Johnson Street Bridge is a bascule bridge spanning the Victoria Harbour (British Columbia), Victoria Harbour in Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria, British Columbia. Four known bridges have spanned the narrows between Victoria's Inner Harb ...

construction project and a controversial

sewage treatment Sewage treatment is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable to discharge to the surrounding environment or an intended reuse application, thereby preventing water p ...

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. For ...

to Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

, the

Canadian monarch The monarchy of Canada is Canada's Government#Forms, form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is one of the key components of Canadian sovereignty and sits at the core of Canadian federalism, Canada's cons ...

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

Songhees The Lekwungen peoples (natively lək̓ʷəŋən) are a Coast Salish people who reside on southeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia in the Greater Victoria area. They are represented by the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations. Their trad ...

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, British Columbia, Victoria, to the south by the Strait of Jua ...

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

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 Sir John Alexander Macdonald (10 or 11January 18156June 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 until his death in 1891. He was the dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, and had a political ...

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. 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". Helps, who is

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

, has also written poetry, and read several of her poems at Wilde About Sappho, a reading event for LGBTQ writers that was held in 2019 to celebrate the 1969 decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada. Helps made a public statement of support for a local cafe while wearing a

drag king Drag kings have historically been mostly female performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine. As documented in the 2003 ''Journal of Homosexuality,'' in more r ...

look in June 2022, after the restaurant was forced to cancel a

drag Drag or The Drag may refer to: Places * Drag, Norway, a village in Tysfjord municipality, Nordland, Norway * ''Drág'', the Hungarian name for Dragu Commune in Sălaj County, Romania * Drag (Austin, Texas), the portion of Guadalupe Street a ...

show due to threats of homophobic violence.Charlie Smith
"Victoria mayor Lisa Helps dresses in drag to show solidarity with small business targeted with homophobic hate"
''

The Georgia Straight ''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools ...

'', June 18, 2022.

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 mayors of places in British Columbia 21st-century Canadian women politicians LGBTQ mayors of places in Canada 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people