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 was 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. 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 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.

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, 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 look in June 2022, after the restaurant was forced to cancel a drag show due to threats of homophobic violence.