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Jim Carrey Tells America: Canadians Are Nice 'Because They Have Health Care'

Bernie Sanders approves.

Actor and comedian Jim Carrey delivered a passionate testimony in favour of Canadian health care on an episode of "Real Time With Bill Maher" — to resounding applause.

The star of "Kidding" on Showtime appeared on the talk show Friday as a special guest, alongside Barack Obama's former strategist David Axelrod, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg and former congressman Charlie Dent.

The topic of discussion was the upcoming U.S. congressional elections and how the term "socialist" is often weaponized as a detraction when it comes to Democrats.

"I grew up in Canada, OK?" Carrey began. "We have socialized medicine. I'm here to tell you that this bullshit line that you get on all of the political shows is that it's a failure, the system is a failure in Canada. It is not a failure in Canada."

Carrey, who was born in Newmarket, Ont. in 1962 but relocated to Los Angeles in the early 1980s to pursue comedy, went on to describe his personal experience with the Canadian health care system.

"I have never waited for anything in my life," he stated. "I chose my own doctors, my mother never paid for a prescription. It was fantastic."

The two-time Golden Globe-winner then suggested a possible reason for Canadians' niceness: our health care system.

"I just got back from Vancouver and I keep hearing this [comment]: 'Canadians are so nice, Canadians are so nice,'" Carrey continued. "They can be nice because they have health care."

The line garnered cheers and applause, but Carrey wasn't finished.

"... Because they have a government that cares about them," he went on. "That doesn't say 'Sink or fucking swim, pal, or you live in a box!' There are certain people in our society that need to be taken care of. There are people without as many opportunities that need to be helped toward those opportunities. There are people who are sick; you shouldn't have to lose your home because your mother got sick."

Carrey's statements got the attention of U.S. senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who posted his approval on Twitter.

The independent senator from Vermont has made the implementation a single-payer health system in the United States, similar to Canada's, one of his central legislative goals.

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