Elon Musk praised the United States' unique freedom of speech laws while warning that a failure to protect speech will be the downfall of democracy during a conversation with Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Noting it's easy for the U.S. system to be taken for granted, Musk said “it really doesn't exist anywhere else, not even in say Canada.”

Touching on his Canadian upbringing, the Twitter boss pointed out the difference between the neighbouring nations, tell Kennedy “you don't have the free speech rights in Canada that you have in the United States.”

WATCH: @ElonMusk praised the US for its commitment to free speech during a Twitter Spaces with RFK Jr., warning that without free speech, "we don't have a functioning democracy."

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— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) June 6, 2023

“Perhaps a new government in Canada at some point will enact those rights because it's incredibly important,” said Musk, a vocal supporter of the Freedom Convoy. “I think if we don't protect free speech at all costs we don't have a functioning democracy, and if we don't have a functioning democracy nothing else matters.”

In addition to championing protesters fighting against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates, Musk has vowed his purchase of Twitter was to protect free speech and to build his “everything app.” 

The extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2022

During the conversation, Kennedy pressed Musk on what caused him to be willing to take huge economic risks to protect a foundational principle of the U.S.

“I love studying history, the history of civilizations, history of all kinds,” Musk replied. “I am of the firm belief that the United States has been the greatest force for benevolence in world history,” he said, noting that the country has made plenty of mistakes but that the good far outweighs the bad.

He continued:

If you look at the Marshall Plan after World War II...the United States had overwhelming military might and had the nuclear bomb. The United States could have taken over the world. It could have acquired whatever countries it wanted. And yet it didn't do any of that. In fact, it gave money to the countries it had been fighting.