I am ashamed to admit that I wasn’t originally planning to attend Bill Clinton’s speaking event yesterday. Having seen him when he spoke here in 2006, I derisively thought I really didn’t need to see him again. How wrong I was.

Credit: The Chronicle Herald

Luckily, one of our clients offered us some tickets (thanks, Bruce), so Mark and I went. What an inspiration. Bill Clinton would be worth seeing 10 times over. First of all, the man is so intelligent that even being in the same room with him makes you feel smarter. What he had to share was insightful and humbling at once.

Essentially, his bottom-line message is that we each have a responsibility to give back somehow. To our communities. To those in need globally. To the environment. And every individual act can make a difference. The world is so interdependent, we can’t escape each other’s fate — this is both good and bad. And while events like September 11 have caused some countries to feel they need to become more protectionist, the reality is that we cannot immunize ourselves — we need to work together. He used a term I have never heard before; he said that the central cultural shift in U.S. politics that has occurred with the change from Bush to Obama is that they have shifted from dealing with cultural divisions to ‘communitarian’ politics. Hmmmmm. That’s cool. OK, I just looked it up. Communitarianism: Advocacy of a social order in which individuals are bound together by common values that foster close communal bonds. That’s not just cool. That’s powerful. I guess this philosophy has been around since the late ’90’s (I must not have been paying attention!). Clinton’s definition seems to be: the need to advance public interest as private citizens. It’s all about grassroots empowerment. And do you know how we can all do that? The Internet. The use of this tool has changed the world. That much we know.

He spoke of a global phenomenon — “an explosion of citizen action” — of people banding together. He gave the example of a bunch of university kids in Idaho using the Internet to connect with a remote African Village somewhere on the Western tip of Africa — they are now exchanging information and knowledge. He spoke of a young man from Burma who made his own way to New Orleans (via London) to volunteer and help build houses — this young man’s goal was to learn how to inspire people to work together so that he in turn can go back to Burma and help his own country build. He spoke of how the use of micro-credit is changing the course of economic development and life in places like Bangladesh. He told us to visit Kiva.org and see what donating $25 could do.

He made mention of the environment. What he told us was profoundly scary. In the last 10 days, MIT has come out with a new study which suggests that the world is warming at twice the rate as originally predicted. Instead of the average temperature rising by four degrees at the end of this century, it will have risen nine degrees. What this will do will be catastrophic to life as we know it. But it’s not irreversible. Yet. We can work together to make a difference. How? For instance he says we need to retrofit all our sizable buildings. He let us know that he’s involved in a project to retrofit the Empire State Building. It was built in the 1930’s and it is an energy pig. That’s just one building, but the energy savings will make a huge difference. I think he said it would be the equivalent of taking 19 cars a day off the road.

Bill says that the big question we all need to ask ourselves is “how”? We must challenge ourselves and our politicians to answer the how.

This man puts his money where his mouth is. I read in the Chronicle Herald this morning that of the $10 million he made last year from his speaking engagements, he gave $8 million of it back to his foundation. He is truly amazing. Bill Clinton, you can come back to Halifax anytime.

A proud Haligonian and graduate of Saint Mary's University, Leslie began her career in advertising almost 20 years ago when she joined Bruce Law & Associates in Halifax, where she worked on such brands as Central Trust and McDonald's (Atlantic Region). For 12 years, Leslie honed her strategic brand building skills in Vancouver, Canada's hottest creative market. There she had the benefit of working with some of the most creative and strategic advertising brand builders in the industry. During her time with TBWA Vancouver and BBDO Vancouver, Leslie worked with such clients as Shaw Cablesystems, BC Lottery Corporation, BCTel (currently Telus), Stentor, AGT, BC's Children's Hospital, MT&T, U TV (now Global Vancouver) and Grouse Mountain. Leslie leads a dual life. At trampoline, she leads Saint Mary's University, Nova Scotia Health Promotion and Protection and PharmaChoice accounts. At home, she's led by her two sweet boys, Connor & Liam!