Republican presidential contender Ben Carson declared “… there is no Canadian dream” during a speech at an American Christian university Wednesday while extolling the idea of“American exceptionalism” to the cheers of an enthusiastic audience.

Carson, a frontrunner to win the Republican presidential nomination, spoke at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., a day after a GOP presidential debate where he defended himself over claims he lied in his autobiography.

“Have you ever noticed there’s an American way, there’s an American dream?” Carson said before thousands of students and visitors.

“There’s no French dream. There’s no Canadian dream,” he said while laughing. “This is the most exceptional nation in the history of the world.”

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Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has come under fire after several media reports cast doubt on stories he’s told of being offered a scholarship to West Point military academy and winning an honesty award at Yale University.

While Carson may not believe in “the Canadian dream” others beg to differ.

A 2014 column from the New York Times entitled ‘It’s Now the Canadian Dream’ found American middle class is no longer the richest in the world, with Canada jumping ahead in median after-tax income. And data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found the American worked an average of 4.6 per cent more hours than its Canadian counterpart, 21 per cent more hours than a French worker and 28 per cent more than a German worker.

A January report from the Economist magazine named Toronto and Montrealas two of the best places to live in the world, according to its index of city rankings.

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Oh, and Canadians live longer on average (81 years) than Americans (79 years) do.

During his more than 20-minute speech Carson weaved anecdotes from his life story with policy priorities he would undertake if elected president. He also took the time to belittle the theory of evolution and promised to protect the “religious freedom” of people who are opposed to same-sex marriage.

“People say, ‘How can you be a scientist and believe that God created the Earth?’” Carson told thousands of students and visitors Wednesday.

“I don’t criticize them. I say, ‘can you tell me how something came from nothing?’ And of course they can’t … Now you’re going to tell me there’s a Big Bang, and it comes into perfect order? … And they say, ‘well, yeah.’ And I say, ‘but don’t you also believe in entropy, that things move toward a state of disorganization?’ Tweet This

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“And they say, ‘we don’t understand everything.’ And I said I’m not sure you understand anything,” he said to a round of laughter loud applause. “I say I’m not going to be critical of you, not a problem because you’re entitled to believe what you want to believe … but everybody believe what you want to believe.”