Helps Wins Second Term as Victoria Mayor; Council Shifts Left

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, elected by 89 votes in 2014, won a convincing victory in her bid for a second term Saturday.

Helps, a community worker and activist first elected to council in 2011, had 12,512 votes with all but one poll reporting. That was almost 4,000 more than second-place finisher Steve Hammond.

Helps said the results showed voters shared her vision for the future of the city.

Hammond, who founded the community group Mad as Hell in response to a tent city on Victoria’s courthouse lawn, ran with a New Council slate of four council candidates, an uncommon approach in Victoria’s municipal politics.

Hammond’s group opposed the city’s expanding bike lane network and accused the current council of fiscal irresponsibility and failing to listen to citizens and businesses.

Helps, in a speech to volunteers after the results were announced, said the campaign was a referendum on the city’s future.

The results were clear, she said.

“The future of the city looks inclusive — it looks like there is room for everyone,” Helps said. “The city of the future looks sustainable — it means that we care about the planet and each other.”

“It means Victorians care about reconciliation.”

And the future needs to be affordable, “making sure there’s room in the city for everyone,” Helps said.

Helps faced criticism in recent months for the council’s failure to consult the public before deciding to remove a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from City Hall and mishandling an investigation that ultimately led to the firing of the city’s police chief.

Despite the criticism, Helps ran on her record as mayor.

“The way that I’ve governed the city for the last four years is the way I promised to do it when I ran, which is not left or right, utterly pragmatic, thoughtful and making decisions based on the information in front of me at the time, not based on any kind of political ideology of any sort,” she told The Tyee during the campaign.

“We began the term with a lot of challenges in front of us, including an unfinished bridge, unstarted sewage treatment project, downtown [commercial] vacancy rate of over 10 per cent, no new rental housing construction in the city for 30 years, transportation system built for the 20th century,” she said.

The city addressed those issues and made progress on affordable housing, created a climate leadership plan and developed master plans for arts and culture and for parks and open spaces, she said.

While Helps remains mayor, there was a significant shift in Victoria’s council.

None of Hammond’s New Council slate was elected.

But the three candidates for Victoria Together, “committed to a bold, progressive vision for our city,” were all elected. Laurel Collins, Sarah Potts and Sharmarke Dubow have promised to work for affordable housing, greater action on climate change and reconciliation. They also support drug decriminalization as a solution to the overdose crisis.

The three, along with re-elected incumbents Ben Isitt, Jeremy Loveday and Marianne Alto, give left-of-centre councillors a majority.