Iceland’s current head of government Johanna Sigurdardottir, who is “the one and only openly lesbian Prime Minister in the World.” This is not, however, why the President of Iceland has refused to sign her government’s UK-Netherlands payback bill into law, triggering a national referendum on March 6, 2010.

In the midst of all the deep excitement about the Vancouver Olympics 2010, who cares about the fate of some obscure arrangements for dealing with an obscure branch of the global financial crisis of fall 2008, in the upcoming March 6, 2010 referendum in the very small if also rather ancient northern nation of Iceland?

For better or worse, our resident Ontario historian Randall White has cared enough to send in a 900-word introduction to the Iceland referendum – and how it might even shed some light on our current struggles with democracy in Canada.

CLICK HERE for the full article or see “March 6 referendum in Iceland: here’s one model for democratizing the governor general in Canada,” under the Canadian Republic category to the right of this page.

(But be forewarned: As Dr. White explains, neither the referendum in Iceland nor its potential relationship to democratizing the office of governor general in Canada has anything at all to do with the otherwise somewhat intriguing political fact that Johanna Sigurdardottir is both “Iceland’s first female Prime Minister, and the world’s first openly gay leader.” (Cabinet ministers in Ontario, municipal councillors in San Francisco, and mayors of Winnipeg of course don’t count here: you have to be the leader of a country, even if it is one with a very small population!)