Clinton still impresses crowds at Vancouver speaking engagement

By Jon Ferry, The Province - It may not have been Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya. But for local political aficionados, it was the next best thing.

Political heavyweight Bill Clinton, the former two-term U.S. president, squared off Thursday in a fascinating public "conversation" with top local middleweight Carole Taylor, the former B.C. finance minister who is fast climbing the rankings to become our next premier.

The star-struck audience at the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts had coughed up as much as $599 a ticket to see the liberal-minded Clinton, who looked trim and conservative in a business suit and purple tie.

He delivered a thoughtful, if somewhat rambling, 45-minute speech on the impact that change, including the current global financial convulsions, is having on the world — and why so many were mistrustful of the old, rigid approaches. And he added that increasing inequality of wealth was not sustainable.

Clinton also said he wished he was 30, and had his life to live all over again: "This is really an interesting time to be alive."

But it was his interview session with the glamorous Taylor that turned out to be the best value of the event, hosted by the Vancouver Board of Trade. Their conversation about everything from Haiti, where Clinton is helping lead earthquake reconstruction efforts, to India and China was compelling.

In answer to one question, Clinton said we could all learn a lot from India and China, because they are countries that believe they have a promising future ahead of them. But he questioned China's suppression of political dissent.