When Canadian-born Eliza Reid became Iceland’s first lady, she soon realized there’s no manual or guidebook for the position. Reid writes about the eight years she served as Iceland’s first lady in The First Lady Next Door: A Canadian’s Memoir of Iceland, Identity, and Unexpected Adventure. Certainly, Reid, who was born and raised in the Ottawa area, never anticipated citizens who shook her husband’s hand in a receiving line and completely ignored her. “I do want to emphasize that that’s sort of a micro-aggression. So, that’s definitely not people who are deliberately trying to snub me but people who, in a large reception, a handful of them are so excited that they’ve just shaken the hand of the president that they kind of don’t notice that there’s a human being next to him,” Reid told CTV News. Reid’s husband, Guðni Jóhannesson, is a history professor and writer whose profile grew when he spoke on TV about a scandal involving Iceland’s prime minister in 2016. “People saw him on television and literally started calling our house to encourage him to run,” Reid said. Weeks later he was elected. While Reid and her family are very much at home in Iceland, she admits to bringing some Canadian traditions with her. “I do like to say I make Iceland’s best Nanaimo Bars and, very often, at Thanksgiving, Canadians who live in Iceland, we get together and have a potluck and I often bring Nanaimo Bars to that,” Reid said.
