My daughter and I joined a crowd of some 5000 at the convention centre in Vancouver this morning/afternoon to hear Hillary Rodham Clinton. We’ve both been Canadian fans of hers and were very disappointed when she lost the U.S. election just over a year ago; an evening that we thought would be a celebration of the first woman president turned into a long walk in the crisp night air to process our disbelief and emotions.
I’m not posting here to stump for Hillary in retrospect, however, but just to tell a little about today’s event from my perspective–because it was great fun and inspiriting too. We arrived soon after the doors opened 9-ish, though it didn’t start until 11:30. A long line had already formed around the building. We secured the closest spots possible in the cavernous hall, in the Silver section, also known as the Somewhat Cheaper Seats Where You Don’t Get a Copy of the Book. But no problem, I’ve already read the warm and very honest memoir, What Happened, and enjoyed it. For the next hours we hung out together, talking and reading and chatting with folks seated around us. The woman next to me had a HRC figurine in her purse. She kept it on her desk, she said, for inspiration I presume. So, without direct access to Hillary herself we photographed the figurine in the blue pantsuit, and the poster!
The poor tenor who opened for her — he had such a fine voice but one, two, three songs in… Well by four and then five songs a bit of groaning was audible; we’d come to hear Ms Clinton after all, but after five numbers she did appear, in a pantsuit of course (black and white) and we could settle back and listen to the woman herself. She had some nice things to say about Canada, where she started this book tour and is ending it, including a big compliment for gender balance in the federal cabinet.
When people ask her if she’s okay after her loss (in spite of winning the popular vote), she says “As a person I’m okay, it’s America I’m concerned about.” She offered four points to remember:
After her opening remarks HRC responded to questions from emcee Bob Rennie on everything from last night’s election in Alabama (“for me a turning point…I’m heartened, but we have to keep at it…”) to what she would have done differently if she was elected (a whole list of things) to the threat of nuclear war (“nuclear weapons still my biggest fear”) to Jerusalem (“you don’t give your leverage away”) to media and ‘fake news’ (“we’re awash in fraudulent information”) to how she maintains resilience and focus.
Hillary Clinton seemed relaxed, was often humourous. She got a lot of support in laughter or applause from the audience. In reference to the current president’s twitter habit: “A lot of the tweeting may be [due to] an excessive amount of Diet Coke. [reportedly up to 12 a day.] Who knows what that does to a brain?” As far as what keeps her resilient she said it was her faith, and her family. She told the story of her mother’s remarkable spirit and example in spite of a very difficult childhood. She also spoke of the courage she’d seen in people in dire situations during her travels as Secretary of State.
“I’m an optimist,” she said, “hoping we’ll get back into balance [as a country]” But it won’t happen without effort, she said. She meets many people in book signing lines who tell her, “I’m so tired.” Tired of fighting for the right, resisting wrong, trying to make the world better for people. Her answer to us on this point was from Scripture, “Do not grow weary doing this good work, for in due time we’ll harvest what we’ve sown.”
“We’ll have to do that for a couple years yet,” she said. “But when we take our country back, everyone can have a glass of chardonnay!”
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