Lisa Helps

Lisa Helps (born April 6, 1976) is a Canadian politician, formerly the mayor of Victoria, British Columbia, with her inauguration taking place on December 4, 2014. She narrowly defeated incumbent mayor Dean Fortin in the 2014 municipal election. 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, and will be succeeded as mayor by Marianne Alto. Career Helps was first elected to Victoria City Council as a city councillor in the 2011 municipal election. She has also worked as a community organizer and activist, 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 and affordable housing in the city and was also boosted by voter frustration over delays in the Johnson Street Bridge construction project and a controversial sewage treatment 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 to Queen Elizabeth II, 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 territory. Helps was criticized by monarchists.