Harper is not a good leader.

Stephen Harper is many things, but a good leader is not one of them. There are three basic leadership styles, autocratic, democratic and free-reign. A good leader understands there's a time and place to use each one. Stephen Harper only knows how to use autocratic. A good leader listens to his followers, looks at the situation and makes a decision based on the best information available to enable the success of the mission. Stephen Harper ignores anyone who isn't a "yes-man", ignores the situation in favour of ideology and goes out of his way to ensure the best information is not available at all, let alone look at it. A good leader inspires his/her followers to action, Stephen Harper fails to inspire so has to use fear and terror to maintain his power and keep his followers moving. Stephen Harper is not a good leader.

The problem that Stephen Harper and his supporters have is that they mistakenly believe that decisive, irreversible action is good leadership. It's not. A good leader has to be decisive yes, but must temper their decisions with good sense and acceptance of advice and the facts. True leaders look decisive because they do this, Harper does not. Recent actions by Harper have shown that he is not a good leader. His ideology and personality prevent him from using good judgement and common sense in his dealings with anyone. That is why our troops now don't have a staging base close to theatre. A good leader would have looked at the situation and looked for a way to compromise in negotiation to ensure our troops weren't left without proper logistical support in a war zone. Stephen Harper was unable to do this, in fact ignoring even those of his own party who didn't hold his hard fast viewpoint. Again not a sign of a good leader.

Finally, a good leader takes responsibility for his actions, good and bad. Stephen Harper is completely incapable of doing this. Leaders are like the rest of us are after all human beings and human beings make mistakes. A good leader tries not to make a mistake by carefully evaluating a situation before making a decision, but understands that sometimes he/she will make a mistake. Stephen Harper hasn't shown any inclination for carefully evaluating anything, apparently being driven by his ideology. When that ideology fails him, Stephen Harper is incapable of admitting that he made a mistake and will blame those around him or those who oppose him for his failures. A good leader recognized that he/she has made a mistake and then takes responsibility for that mistake and tries to correct for the mistake. Stephen Harper is incapable of admitting that he could possibly be close to making a mistake. This prevents him from taking responsibility for his mistakes and failures. Stephen Harper is not a good leader.

In these troubled times Canada needs good leadership. Unfortunately Stephen Harper is not a good leader.