Two months after lamenting the prop-like role of first ladies (and spouses of world-leaders), First Lady of Iceland Eliza Reid has joined the payroll of Promote Iceland (Íslandsstofa), Vísir reports. She is the first spouse of a sitting president to occupy a salaried position in Iceland. Promote Iceland is a public-private partnership established to improve the competitiveness of Icelandic companies in foreign markets and to stimulate economic growth through increased export. “I will be a kind of spokesperson, you could say, for Iceland generally, but for tourism, innovation, and equal rights in the country, as well. I will be promoting Iceland in events organised by Promote Iceland,” Reid stated. Director of Promote Iceland, Pétur Óskarsson, stated that Reid will be a great addition to the team. The company is currently restructuring its operations, with additional emphasis being placed on the organisation of events abroad. “Over the past few years, Eliza has collaborated with us on similar projects,” Óskarsson stated. “When we were planning ahead for the future, we realised that she could be of great assistance. We solicited her aid and she agreed.” Eliza will accompany Promote Iceland to select events in North America and Europe, as she has done in the past. “The events of the coming year will be planned with her in mind.” Reid will not be a full-time employee of Promote Iceland but as a contractor. “We will, of course, be paying her for her services.” According to Vísir, Reid will be paid approximately ISK 500,000 per month. As previously noted, this is the first time that a sitting president’s spouse will be a salaried employee of an Icelandic company. Dorrit Moussaieff attended to the affairs of her and her father’s London-based company – during the presidency of her husband, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. “I am not my husband’s handbag.” In September of this year, Reid shared an article from the Guardian titled “The G7 was the final straw – world leaders’ wives should refuse to travel with their spouses,” on her public Facebook-page, saying the author’s words struck a chord. In her post, Reid lamented the fact that independent, intelligent women were “reduced to props for their husbands’ political agendas.” In October, Reid also published an op-ed in the New York Times, describing the perils of navigating the role of First Lady in 2019. Eliza Jean Reid is the Canadian-born current First Lady of Iceland since 2016 and co-founder of the Iceland Writers Retreat. Before her appointment as First Lady, she was a freelance writer for multiple Icelandic magazines and editor of the Icelandair Stopover from 2012 to 2016. In just a few days an Ontario woman will find out if she is to become the first lady of Iceland. Eliza Reid, who married an Icelandic history professor and moved to the Nordic country more than ten years ago, has found herself at the centre of an election campaign in which her husband has emerged as the front-runner for the office of the president. The whirlwind race, and its implications for the future, have Reid grappling with the very real possibility of taking up a public position and having to move her family into the presidential residence. “When I was growing up in the Ottawa Valley it would never have occurred to me that my future would have taken me in this direction,” said the 40-year-old. “I feel like I’ve been very welcomed by Icelandic society. It would be a tremendous honour to be able to have that role.” As election day looms on June 25, Reid believes her Canadian background has helped in a campaign which cropped up “completely out of the blue.” “As a Canadian, my stereotype is a bit that I am grounded and regular and don’t try to be something that I’m not,” said the mother of four who works as a writer and editor. “And I think those are things about us that appeal to the electorate, we’re just what you see is what you get.” Reid met her husband, Gudni Johannesson, when they were both studying history in England. They moved to Iceland in 2003 and married a year later. Running for the presidency — a largely ceremonial role which has been compared to Canada’s Governor General — only came up this spring, Reid said. Iceland’s outgoing president first announced in his New Year address that he would not be seeking another term as the country’s head of state, prompting people to start declaring their interest, she said. Some asked Reid’s husband, who is an academic expert on the history of the presidency, if he would consider running, but the suggestions weren’t initially acted upon, she said. The situation changed in April, when the Panama Papers scandal revealed that the family of Iceland’s prime minister had offshore accounts, Reid said. The prime minister ended up resigning, Johannesson was called upon to provide a fair bit of commentary on the matter, and his public profile rose, she said. “He was seen as having intelligent, but non-partisan things to say about what was going on,” said Reid. “People just started calling our house, sending him Facebook messages and calling his cellphone…saying you should really consider running.” After mulling it over with his family, Johannesson announced on May 5 that he would run for the presidency and has since emerged as the leading candidate. “People don’t necessarily want a career politician as their head of state,” said Reid. “Gudni is seen as being very knowledgeable of the institution of the presidency, of its roles and limitations, but is also not seen as having his own private agenda.” Since their campaign began, Reid has been by her husband’s side at almost every event, and says she has been received warmly by his supporters. “People often elect the couple, especially because of this sort of figurehead capacity of (the role),” she said. “People like to know that I was born somewhere else but I’ve learned the language and have been taking part in society for a number of years.”