Chretien and Harper ham it up and Brian gets a Northern Perspective...

Plus, the latest on our messed up immigration system.

I’m on a flight to Florida as I write this. It’s been a dreary winter, January in Toronto has been horrible and I need some warmth and rest and relaxation.

As the plane was boarding a gentleman passing by, I really should have gotten his name, asked if I would be writing a post during the flight.

Absolutely!

Enjoying the warmth and charm of Chretien and Harper…

Watching Jean Chretien and Stephen Harper do their road show is great fun. The two former adversaries have become great friends and now do these fireside chats together that leaves everyone laughing.

As part of Harper Fest, the celebration of the 20 year anniversary of the Harper government being sworn in, the two were on stage in Ottawa on Monday. Perhaps you’ve seen some clips online of Chretien joking that Harper is afraid of him because of the Shawinigan Handshake or Harper poking fun at Mark Carney choosing bad historical moments to highlight.

What’s good is that they still disagree on things but can get along and have a laugh while each calling out for a better Canada.

Perhaps each of them will say something you don’t agree with but for the most part it’s a fun watch.

Here’s the National Post run down of their chat and the event.

A fun quick note about these two.

Harper faced off against Chretien for about a year and a half at the end of Chretien’s time as PM. Once Harper became PM he ended up soliciting advice from his former nemesis and their friendship began.

It’s not unusual for PMs to seek the advice of other people who have done the job before them. Justin Trudeau on the other hand I’m told rarely sought advice from Chretien.

Getting a Northern Perspective…

Yesterday I mentioned the great event with the influencers at the CPC convention. Well, a couple who weren’t at that event but who have certainly become influencers and made a name for themselves are Ryan and Tanya Davies of Northern Perspective.

I’ve been on with them a few times to talk about different issues. This time I got to meet up with them in person and talk politics at the BMO Centre in Calgary during the middle of the convention.

This guy should be deported…

It puzzles me, I’m sure it puzzles most of you, as to why we let people who are not citizens stay in Canada when they keep breaking the law.

My Sun colleague Brad Hunter has the lowdown on one such individual named Medhani Yohans.

Cops say he was arrested around 2:35 p.m. in downtown Guelph after officers allegedly witnessed him breaching the conditions of his probation. One of the reported conditions barred him from a certain address in the city.

With a history of sexually assaulting strangers and other violent acts, Yohans last July pleaded guilty to breaching probation and breaching a peace bond. Guelph Judge Matthew Stanley sentenced Yohans to time served.

In Canada we don’t do enough deportation. Instead as National Post has documented time and again, we give people discounted sentences to make sure their criminal record doesn’t impact their deportation.

As for refugee health benefits…

It was more than a decade ago that I wrote the story about the gold plated health benefits offered to refugee claimants in Canada. That story in the Toronto Sun, lost in the bowels of the internet, helped change policy under the Harper government.

Under the old plan, refugee claimants were entitled to health benefits through the government plan that Canadian citizens did not get, such as vision care, dental care and prescription drug coverage. Under then Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, the program was changed to provide refugees with benefits similar to what was on offer to Canadians.

That meant some things were cut but in other areas the benefits improved.

Of course, left wing activists cried fowl, there were protests for years and when the Trudeau Liberals took office, the gold plated plan was back.

Now, Mark Carney’s Liberals are trying to trim costs by asking for co-payments of $4 for prescriptions and up to 30% for services such as physiotherapy.

It’s a good first move, but it doesn’t go far enough.

The program should go back to the way it was under Harper. The incredible surge in asylum claims, most of them bogus attempts to skip the legal immigration line, means that costs are surging as well.

In 2016 the program covered about 84,000 people and cost $66 million. Today the program costs close to $900 million and covers more than 600,000 people.

Writing in The Globe and Mail, Robyn Urback notes that unlike in 2012 when Harper scaled back the program there are no mass protests from doctors. She also points out that this needs to be done in the name of fairness.

There’s also a social imperative for bringing refugee benefits closer in line with those afforded to Canadian citizens. That’s because, bluntly, the Trudeau government destroyed the immigration consensus in Canada; it brought in so many newcomers, so quickly, that integration was impossible and resentment inevitable. The Carney government is now tightening the rules for student visas, work permits, and asylum claimants, but it will take a lot more than a change in numbers for Canadians to again believe that immigration is a good thing, and to trust that our processes are rigorous and fair.