The context doesn't make clear what Palin is saying is "ironic," though it may be the fact that she now considers the Canadian system dangerously flawed.
Palin, as a young child, lived in a remote community as near to Whitehorse as to any Alaska metropolis.
CORRECTION: Whitehorse is in Yukon, not Saskatchewan, and Palin, as a young child, lived closer to it than earlier reported.
UPDATE: Here's some more context: "My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse. Believe it or not - this was in the '60s - we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn't that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada."
Was socialist medicine in Canada back in the 60’s?