Hillary Clinton: Between Past and Future

There was George W. Bush in 2009, Bill Clinton in 2010, and Mikhaïl Gorbachev in 2011.

The network of big speakers that occasionally pass through Montreal includes a good list of former leaders who fill their political retirement with rounds of generously remunerated speeches.

Hillary Clinton’s is a different scenario. A former senator, the former first lady and former secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton is certainly an “ex.” But there is a very good chance that she may also be the next Democratic candidate for the 2016 American presidential elections. Who knows, she could even be the next president of the United States.

It’s not just her levels of service, but also an immense question mark over her future that attracted thousands of curious people to the conference organized by the Montreal Chamber of Commerce last night.

As a good “ex,” Hillary Clinton devoted her speech to a subject that is dear to her: equality among men and women. It is a topic that she knows by heart, and one that she has defended with conviction, peppering her speech with statistics that show that the participation of women is socially, economically and politically worthwhile — not forgetting to quote some examples of projects led by the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

That is all well and good, but we were far from the Hillary Clinton who fights to defend her projects with passion. While listening to her, I was thinking of the way she had argued in favor of the right to abortion in front of a congressional committee four years ago.

It was amazing to see her respectfully assure her political adversary, before literally KO’ing him with a clear, concise and to-the-point defense of the right to safe and legal abortion. It is worthwhile taking a look at that on YouTube: an anthological piece on the art of silencing an opponent with an irrefutable argument.

It was not the same Hillary Clinton who addressed the public yesterday — people who did not need to be turned on to the importance of women’s rights anyways, and who probably already doubted that everything was resolved in this issue.

As a good “ex,” Hillary Clinton engaged the audience in a simple way. She made some jokes, recalled that her own career hides its own ups and downs, before quoting a famous piece of advice by Eleanor Roosevelt, suggesting that women who want to get into politics should ensure that they “grow skin like a rhinoceros.”

Great. But all of that felt a little lifeless. It was in the second part of the evening that Mrs. Clinton put aside her “ex” habits and became once again the politician that she is through and through, when she answered the questions of the CEO of the Quebec energy company Gaz Métro, Sophie Brochu.

She truly woke up when the topic of Russia and Ukraine came up. The only way for her to say Putin’s name was with an element of hostility and disdain in her voice, reminiscent of the Cold War, accentuating the visibly deteriorating relationship between Washington and Moscow.

She defended the decision to expand NATO to the old USSR satellites, criticized Russia for its aggressive raids in the Arctic, and named a list of countries potentially exposed to Moscow’s territorial tendencies: Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova …

That was the resilient and affirmed Hillary Clinton. A fighter. A Hillary Clinton who is still alive and well, despite all of the efforts that she makes to seem like an “ex.” While leaving the Convention Center yesterday, I found it hard to believe that she would settle for remaining behind the scenes in 2016.

The pattern with these big conferences, probably imposed by the speakers themselves, ensures that any true conflict of interest is avoided. Mrs. Sophie Brochu made some commendable efforts yesterday to get some information out of Mrs. Clinton about what she would intend on doing as president; however, she managed to gracefully dodge the question.

As for the potentially controversial topics, not least concerning her legacy as secretary of state — which includes the assassination of Osama bin Ladin and the drone bombings that killed civilians — they are quite simply not conceivable in these meetings that are, by definition, merciful.

What a shame.