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In post-inauguration comments, she said she had wanted to pledge her oath solely to the people of Victoria, and left out the Queen’s name partly as a gesture to the local Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations.

She was not alone. Five of the city’s nine-member council also broke with tradition by declining to pledge allegiance to “Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, her heirs and successors.”

In a blog postexplaining his decision, Councillor Ben Isitt cited the “tremendous suffering and dislocation for indigenous people” caused by British imperialism.

“I’m not a big fan of the monarchy, and I work closely with local First Nations, and I think to honour that work and the process of decolonization, I couldn’t in good faith take this voluntary oath,” he told the National Post.

The decision has incensed Victoria’s small, but vocal cadre of monarchists.

Bruce Hallsor, the Monarchist League of Canada’s representative, said members would not have voted for Ms. Helps had they known she would refuse to swear an oath to the Queen.

She won the November election by only 89 votes.

“I’m pretty sure there’s more than 89 monarchists who voted for Lisa Helps who would not have voted for her if she had been upfront about our recent position,” Mr. Hallsor told Global B.C.

While an oath to the Queen is mandatory for MLAs across town at the B.C. Legislature Assembly, the province’s mayors face no such requirement. For this reason, pledging fealty to the Queen was long ago abandoned in some of Victoria’s older, richer and arguably more monarchist suburbs.