Last week I had the opportunity to attend two inspiring speeches by two inspiring men, all in one day! William Jefferson Clinton and Paul Martin both happened to come to London, Ontario on Nov 26th, and I was lucky enough to be able to fit both of them into my schedule. William Jefferson Clinton, 43rd President of the U. He was 30 minutes late, and the crowd was kept occupied with entertainment from the Canadian Tenors.
As the secret service took their place, Bill Clinton finally walked up on stage with the sound of Pride In the Name of Love by U2 playing over the audio system. As an evidently tired and fatigued Clinton walked up to the podium, the first thing I noticed was that the man had aged.
Clinton launched into his speech by tackling a very complicated topic, the credit crisis. He explained the complex issue in a simplistic manner, reaching out too all demographics of the crowd. What an amazing ability! So what were my overall thoughts? Ok back to his speechβ¦. When the topic of Canada came up, he praised Canada as the U. He referred to the interdependence between our two economics, spitting out economic facts and quoting historical events that surely made him come across as a knowledgeable scholar.
It was evident that Clinton was the real deal. As the topic of Afghanistan was brought up, he thanked Canada for our involvement and pleaded that we should see it through to the end. He talked about how Canada was only one of a few countries actually fighting terror in Afghanistan, as opposed to showing face and avoiding the heated conflict areas.
He said that the U. The crowd seemed relieved to hear that. Clinton was very candid and transparent about his thoughts on the current state of America. In fact he said it three times. He talked about how America had over-stretched its military by taking part in two wars, and how many of their soldiers were on their 4th or 5th consecutive military tour. When the topic of the automotive crisis came up, he pled with the crowd to support a joint U. Bill went on to offer additional clues about what to expect under President-Elect Obama.
