Here's an article explaining the "big-nothing" ... LOL ...
By Tommy Report
The following claims were made early this morning regarding Palin's comments in Calgary:
Palin, as a young child, lived in a remote community as near to Whitehorse as to any Alaska metropolis.
The nearest city in Canada, Whitehorse, is a 15 hour drive away. Anchorage is only 45 minutes away.
The closest Canadian city is 15 hours away from Wasilla.
Little did these bloggers know that the source from which they were quoting either deliberately or unintentionally left off the fact that Palin clearly said that the story emanated from when her family lived in Skagway. Skagway is pretty close to Whitehorse. Now the fun part is seeing all the walkbacks:
"Palin, as a young child, lived closer to itthan [sic] earlier reported."
"The Calgary Herald has a fuller, slightly different version of the quote."
Ok, it appears that this was when Palin lived in "Skagway, Alaska," which is much closer to Canada.
In any event, the Calgary Herald notes that "
Medical Care Act that established national medicare came to Canada" was implemented in 1966." Since Palin did not give any time frame for when this story occurred, it's possible that her family went over to Whitehorse
prior to when socialized medicine was implemented in Canada. Also, the Calgary Herald notes too that "it's not exactly anybody's political choice where they receive medical attention when they're less than five years old."
Even if the story occurred after 1966, I'll call hypocrisy the day
wealthy liberals give back their Bush tax cuts (if it's not clear, I do not believe liberals who benefited from the Bush tax cuts are hypocritical at all).
Update: I'm hearing from even some Palin adversaries that even though the "Medical Care Act" was enacted in 1966, it wasn’t until 1972 that universal health care could be found throughout Canada. If this is true, then no argument can even be made about "hypocrisy."
Update #2: According to the summary of Canada's health care system by
Health Canada, it was only until 1972 that Yukon "create[d] medical insurance plans with federal cost sharing."
Update #3: If Whitehorse is closer to Skagway than Juneau and if the Palins paid for their son's care while they were in Yukon, how is that hypocrisy? If they paid for their son's care in Yukon, then how is she benefiting in a hypocritical fashion from socialized medicine considering that the whole point behind socialized medicine is that you don't have to pay for your healthcare (and I still reject the premise behind the "hypocrisy" argument because of the liberal/"Bush tax cut" logic I cite to above)?
Update #4: Ben Smith adds the
point we made in our second update to his original post:
ALSO: Socialized medicine apparently only kicked in in Yukon in 1972, post-Palin.