Hundreds of $10 heroes keep the Tall Tales coming

By Tom Hawthorn
Special to The Globe and Mail
December 26, 2011

VICTORIA

A look back at the year that was:

In June, the Big Bad Wolf knocked at the door of Tall Tale Books, a children’s store.

The owners, Kate and Drew Lorimer, were prepared to shutter the store, giving up on a dream of creating a bright, kid-friendly bookstore of their own in downtown Victoria.

They decided to take one last shot, hitting on the idea of what they called the Hero Society. They asked patrons to subscribe for as little as $10 per month in exchange for merchandise at the store. That way the couple could have a predictable, guaranteed income and keep the store afloat.

Kate, Drew and Emma Grace Lorimer.

In a month-long campaign, they sought 400 subscribers by Canada Day.

How’d they do?

”Six months later, we’re still here,” Mr. Lorimer said.

“We got a little over 300, so we didn’t quite make out goal, but we’ve got an amazing group of people supporting us. Things are definitely better. It’s still week to week, month to month. We’re never out of the woods.”

The store’s third Christmas season has been its busiest yet. Particularly popular have been Patrick McDonnell’s Me ... Jane (“a picture book about Jane Goodall as a kid — adorable, simple sweet story but inspirational”) and Sherri Duskey Rinker’s Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site (“a humourous bedtime lullaby book about construction vehicles on a worksite going to bed with teddy bears and blankies”).

In the end, another year passed with the Lorimers having kept the wolf at bay. Can’t yet call it a happy ending, as the story of Tall Tale Books is still being written.

Of the more than 50 “Eyes on the Island” columns published this year, none got as much attention as a report on Daniel Loxton’s efforts to get published an illustrated children’s book on evolution. The Victoria writer and illustrator shopped his book to American publishers, none of which would agree to bring the book to market.

Instead, the evolution book was released by Canadian-owned Kids Can Press of Toronto.

The news that American publishers wouldn’t touch a children’s book about evolution generated about 600 Tweets, including one by the film and culture critic Roger Ebert, as well as more than 4,000 Facebook recommendations. It was mentioned on CNN.

Mr. Loxton’s book, Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be, went on to win the prestigious Lane Anderson Award for young readers. The judges described the book as a “tour de force of science writing.”

Soon after, Loxton launched his second book, Ankylosaur Attack, at Tall Tale Books. A herd of dinosaur-loving children, many of them exhibiting their fierce claws and fangs, listened to the author Grr! Arr! and Rawr! his way through a reading.

Social media also played a prominent role in the municipal campaign of Lisa Helps, who was one of three rookies elected to Victoria city council in November. Ms. Helps’ savvy operation included regular Facebook and Twitter updates. She called on other candidates to join her in a hootenanny at Logan’s Pub and she held weekly work crews to repair fences and tidy community gardens.

The candidate whose name doubles as a campaign slogan finished in third place in the at-large election, within striking distance of topping the polls.

After her victory, she converted her campaign website into one in which she asks the public for input on issues facing council. Her slogan: “A city where citizens lead.” It will be interesting in the new year to see if the citizens feel any more empowered with this council than its predecessors.

Last January, we looked at the shuttering of the Blethering Place, a restaurant on Oak Bay’s High Street decorated as though by one’s eccentric English auntie. For three decades, the restaurant served as Victoria’s “favourite faux Tudor tearoom,” as it was called, offering bangers and mash to a clientele that included Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet. Today, the Oak Bay Bistro offers bison, chicken liver parfait, and local artisan goat cheese from Saltspring Island.

Fish and chips? Not on the menu. But there is slow-roasted Arctic char with roasted sunchoke and sweet potato hash.

Oak Bay has lost some of its Olde England flavour. All for the better.

Quirky moniker Helps political novice in name recognition challenge

Victoria city council candidate Lisa Helps helps harvest vegetables from Haultain Common, a strip of city-owned land. Chad Hipolito photographs for the Globe and Mail.

By Tom Hawthorn
Special to The Globe and Mail
October 24, 2011

VICTORIA

The candidate gets quizzical looks on the doorstep when she introduces herself.

That can happen when your family name is also an intransitive verb.

“My name really is Lisa Helps,” she assures voters.

The felicitously-named candidate is making her debut on the hustings this fall. She is among 20 candidates vying for eight seats on Victoria city council. Among the contenders are all eight incumbents.

For the challengers, it’s like playing a game of musical chairs in which every chair is occupied.

The incumbents began the campaign favoured to return to their seats after the Nov. 19 civic election. Name recognition can be a trump card. Voter interest is low. Three years ago, only 27 per cent of eligible voters bothered to cast a ballot.

For Ms. Helps, the challenge is not only to become known, but to encourage more voters to go to the polls.

Lisa Helps

“It requires a lot of interesting campaigning,” she said. “I need to reach everybody.”
Like most candidates, she is relying on social media to spread her message. A Twitter and Facebook presence allows her to canvass potential supporters for their views on the issues. It also helps her build a platform during the campaign.

“It’s not just, ‘I’m Lisa, vote for me.’ It’s ‘Hey, I’m Lisa, what are your hopes, dreams, ideas, thoughts for the city?’ ”

The modern approach is being backed by an old-fashioned letter-writing strategy her campaign calls the Judd Buchanan Project. Mr. Buchanan, 82, told Ms. Helps that he had launched his political career by winning election to the school board in London, Ont., by writing personal letters to potential supporters. The insurance agent went on to to win five consecutive elections to the House of Commons, where he served as a Cabinet minister under Pierre Trudeau before moving to Victoria.

To campaign in a civic election is to practice politics at the neighbourhood level with door-knocking, mainstreeting and kaffeeklatsches. Ms. Helps spends two nights a week at gatherings in private homes where she is introduced to neighbours over tea, chocolates, or wine and cheese. “They feel like job interviews,” she said, laughing. Which, of course, they are.

The 12 non-incumbent candidates include homeless advocate Rose Henry and property owner Robin Kimpton, who has been in disputes with the city over the disrepair of his rental properties. Ben Isitt, an historian and author, who twice ran unsuccessfully for mayor, is also seeking a council seat. Three candidates — Aaron Hall, Linda McGrew and Sukhi Lalli — are running as a slate endorsed by Open Victoria, a group calling for greater transparency at city hall.

Ms. Helps, 35, is executive director of Community Micro Lending, which provides modest loans to budding entrepreneurs seeking to start a small business. The group also pairs the loan recipients with mentors from the business community.

Earlier, she chaired the Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group when it bought a dilapidated century-old building on the area’s main intersection. The building was renovated with apartments for low-income residents upstairs and a popular coffee shop on street level. (Victoria is a small town. The building was purchased from Mr. Kimpton, against whom she now competes for a council seat.)

One feature of the Helps campaign is the holding of a weekly work party.

“We’re repairing fences, helping with gardens and building bookshelves,” she said.

“That draws attention to ‘Hey, Lisa actually gets stuff done,’ which is one of my key messages.”

On Saturday, she was joined by incumbent Philippe Lucas and candidate Shellie Gudgeon, a restaurateur, in harvesting and weeding Haultain Common, a vegetable garden planted with tomatoes, potatoes, and squash along a narrow boulevard of city-owned land.

Lest campaigning be all work and no fun, she is inviting all 20 council and four mayoral candidates to a hootenanny at Logan’s Pub.

“It’s going to be interesting to see who shows up and what they sing,” she said.

“It’ll lighten things up and draw people together.”

She plans to sing with her campaign team She’ll Be Coming ’Round the Mountain. They’ve changed the lyrics to fit into the campaign: “She’ll be making an infrastructure priority plan when she comes ...”

Good thing she’s not running for Canadian Idol.

The campaign introduced the candidate to the electorate with a charming day-in-the-life video.