Even a broken toe couldn't stop Hillary Clinton from coming to Montreal.
The former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 Presidential candidate suffered the injury to her foot earlier this month while she was in the United Kingdom promoting her new book, "What Happened". But as she pointedly said shortly after taking the stage at the Palais de Congrès, she insisted on making sure she could make a return to Quebec.
This is her second time in the province since her narrow election loss last November to Donald Trump -- she and her family spent several days in North Hatley in the Eastern Townships over the summer.
Tonight, she appeared before nearly 3,500 people to discuss the 2016 election, her shocking loss, and the book, called "What Happened", that she wrote as a post-mortem.
She told the crowd that she hadn't originally planned to write a book so soon after losing last year's presidential election. But she said that in the months after the shock election result, "there was so much talk about what happened, and I didn't think that people were seeing the full picture."
Clinton added that she thinks it is important that people understand what went wrong during the election to fight against the long-term rise of far-right politics across the western world. "The lessons we draw from 2016 will help determine whether democracy is protected", she said.
She also touched upon the recent barrage of sexual-assault and sexual-harassment scandals that have made headlines in recent weeks, including here in Quebec. "There should be no tolerance for this behaviour", she said, adding that "we have to stand up and applaud them [women who report sexual assaults] for the courage it took for them to do that."
Near the close of her hour-long Q&A, she also added a warning to Canadians, with our next federal election just two years away. "I don't know enough about your political system," she said, "but beware if a reality TV candidate enters your politics." She said that she was unprepared for the difficulties that Trump, whom she called the "first reality TV candidate", would present to the process of campaigning.
"This was the first reality TV campaign, and he was the first reality TV candidate", Clinton said. "I was the candidate of reality. And I was just not as entertaining."