Once-Vice-Presidential hopeful and former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin remarked in a talk in Calgary, Alberta, that she and her family used to “hustle over the border for healthcare” when she lived in a remote town near Whitehorse, Yukon Territory (approximately 300 miles from the Alaskan border). Mrs. Palin has often spoken against the single-payer healthcare system, especially the possibility of a single-payer healthcare system as part of healthcare reform in the United States.
Mrs. Palin spoke to a sold out crowd of about 1,200 people in Calgary (attendees paying between $150-$200 for tickets) about small government, climate change, and her admiration for the Tea Party movement in the United States. The crowd was very enthusiastic for Mrs. Palin’s first Canadian appearance since stepping down as Governor of Alaska last summer, with about half of the audience giving her a standing ovation.
Mrs. Palin denied that she was interested in a leadership position in the Tea Party movement, whose convention she addressed last month. She described the anti-big-government grassroots political organization as a “beautiful [...] conservative movement.” Mrs. Palin said she “didn’t know” what she was going to do in 2012, with regards to her political opportunites, but that she would support candidates who followed her “common sense” approach to government.