Canada got a first-hand taste of U.S politics over the weekend.
Bernie Sanders, the avowed socialist who took a serious run at the Democratic Party nomination in 2016 before losing to Hillary Clinton, announced earlier this month he would be joining a group coming to Canada to purchase insulin at a fraction of the price they pay in the U.S.
Sure enough, on Sunday he and a busload of insulin buyers crossed the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario,
Outside of a Canadian pharmacy, Sanders, who is in Detroit, Michigan to participate in Democratic Party debates this week, held up a tiny bottle.
“Here’s the bottom line: this is a vial of insulin,” he said.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders stands in Windsor with Americans Hunter Sego and his mother, Kathy Sego. They were part of an ‘insulin caravan’ to Canada on Sunday. (Martin Trainor/CBC)
“In the United States, depending on where you live, it’ll cost 350 to 400 bucks. Here in Canada, it will cost 35 or 40 bucks. One tenth the price, made by exactly the same man manufacturer.
“Sanders, the junior senator from Vermont, has long targeted pharmaceutical companies and skyrocketing prescription drug prices in the U.S.
The Sanders campaign shared news footage of a similar medication trip he took to Canada in 1999 on its Twitter account.
As the cost of insulin increases in the United States, more and more Americans are coming to Canada to purchase the drug.
We love our Canadian neighbours, and we thank them so much,” Sanders said Sunday.
“But we should not have to come to Canada to get the medicine we need for our kids to stay alive.”
With files from CBC, CP, CTV, Huffington Post
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