Sarah Palin Punked By Comedian, Says Canada Needs Health Care Reform

Posing as a reporter from a Canadian television station, comedian Mary Walsh punked Sarah Palin during a book signing, getting Palin to tell her that Canada needs to return to a U.S.-style system of health care.

Walsh is the co-creator and star of This Hour Has 22 Minutes — a nightly news parody show in the same vein as The Daily Show — and she arrived in character, as the conservative Marg Delahunty, to the Borders where Palin (the “Alaskan Aphrodite”) was signing books. “I just wanted to ask you if you have any words of encouragement for Canadian conservatives who have worked so hard to try to diminish the kind of socialized medicine we have up there.” Walsh shouted to Palin as she approached the table. Palin’s handlers tried to help her by ushering Walsh out of the Borders, but Palin could not be deterred. When Palin left the signing, Walsh caught up with her in the parking lot, where Palin suggested that Canada should get rid of its public health care system. “Keep the faith” Palin said, “because common sense conservatism can be plugged in there in Canada too. In fact, Canada needs to reform its health care system and let the private sector take over some of what the government has absorbed.”