People hunt, trap, ect on both sides of border; wilderness for 100 miles of nothing. People are related on both sides of border, use other Nations Post Offices, and ignore gun regulations. Buy/sell, guns, boats, everything as state licenses are ignored, nobody has them and not enough people to bother starting a war over. Different than in lower 48.
Palin probably spoke the truth as she always does, no big deal. Nowadays, small bush communities are lucky to have an Indian Clinic with a White guy for EMT that is just as good as a doctor with net access to hospital doctors. Back then, people had to travel to any large community for health care or look up local root doctor.
People should be glad Palin's no liar. Been watching Palin since early 90's and a liar she is not.
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."