QUITO, ECUADOR
Local Good Samaritan Mark Reimer will be sworn in as President of Ecuador in a ceremony to take place this July in the small fishing village of Puerto Lopez.
“I’m working on my Spanish,” says Reimer. “If I’m going to be President, I’ve got to brush up a bit.”
Reimer has led a humanitarian team of Manitobans to work in Ecuador each July for the past few years. The project, known as ‘Manitoba to Ecuador,’ works in orphanages, teaches English, and plays soccer with the locals.
“Normally we have between twenty and thirty people come down to Ecuador,” Reimer said. “But I’ve been in talks with Premier Pallister about moving the entire province to Puerto Lopez.”
Rigoberta Gonzalez, one of Reimer’s biggest Ecuadorian supporters, says she likes the plan. “They all can come,” she says, “just so long as they don’t bring the bitterly cold winters with them.”
Reimer’s efforts did not go unnoticed by Ecuadorian voters who turned out in record numbers to support his candidacy.
In a separate referendum, the population voted to approve the relocation of Manitoba to Ecuador, provided Mark can sell enough scarves to pay for it.