Former U.S. President Bill Clinton accepted an honorary degree from McGill University in Montreal recently and during his speech he said that we Americans could learn a few things from our neighbors to the north.

“There were many occasions when leaders of the Republicans thought I might want to live to this country,” Clinton said, according to a report in the Montreal Gazette. “And there were some moments when I thought it might not be a bad idea.”

Then he got serious for a moment and said, ”The United States and Canada are similar in several ways, but there is a fundamental difference in the community spirit that you have here (in Canada). That’s what we’ve been trying to do at home (in the U.S.) for the last 10 years.”

Clinton waded into the health care debate, giving his take on how the U.S. would benefit from a universal health care system.

According to the Canadian Press, he noted that the U.S. spends more on health care than any other country and is the only major developed nation that lacks universal health coverage. Canadians spend about 10.5 per cent of their income on health care, he said, Americans spend a whopping 17 per cent.

“If you add it up, it amounts to a $900-billion handicap we take into the global economy,” he said.

Would his words amount to much? Not if you ask him.

“That’s the great thing about not being president – you can say anything you want,” he said in the same speech. “Of course, nobody cares what you have to say anymore, but you can say it, at least.”