Stephen Harper is REALLY not a leader

Leadership is something that is hard to define. But Stephen Harper is not a good leader. And it’s not just about any individual thing he’s done, it’s clear that his whole approach is in the wrong direction.

Here’s a case study on Stephen Harper’s leadership. Nova Scotia and the Maritimes are bleeding youth to Alberta and the oil patch. There is a lack of economic development here, and the jobs are there, so we go.

The result is a huge generational crunch as rural Nova Scotia is becoming almost exclusively populated with senior citizens. My family is a perfect example. My mother is one of ten children born in Guysborough Interval, NS. Of the ten, six are living and retired in Nova Scotia. But of the 23 grandchildren, only five live in Nova Scotia. With such a generational shift, we are going to have mass shortages of labour. We are already seeing shortages of doctors and nurses, and other healthcare professionals especially in rural Nova Scotia. It worries me about my mother’s generation as the results of Bush and Harper’s laissez-faire approach to economics has quite literally left their retirement investments to the free market.

Now, what burns me the most about this situation is where all these young hardworking honest Martimers are going. The oilsands project in Alberta is a phenomenal example of Harper’s lack of leadership, not just on the environment but also on energy security.

First you need to check out this report: Canada’s Toxic Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth.

Did you know the largest damn in the world is in Canada? It’s visible from space and holding back toxic tar sludge from the oil sands project. There are other environmental gems in there like the return of acid rain to Canada over the prairies, and deformed fish that smell like rubber burning when you fry them.

To make matters worse for eastern Canada, despite the fact that Canada is now regarded as holding the second largest oil deposits of any nation in the world, the pipelines flow to the US and the Pacific coast. The Alberta government collects fewer royalties than Alaska charges on its oil, and our unrenewable resource is going across our southern border and to China. There is no eastern pipeline planned, and the Martimes and Central Canada are still reliant on Venezuala, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and recently Newfoundland and Labrador for our energy security.

From the Edmonton Journal November 3, 2007:

“Kinder Morgan’s agenda includes TMX North. For an estimated $2 billion to $3 billion, the firm aims to build a 400,000-barrels-daily branch line from a point west of Mount Robson across the Prince George region of central B.C. to a proposed new supertanker port on the Pacific coast at Kitimat”.

From Energy Security in Nova Scotia (PDF), (June 2007) by Larry Hughes, page 25:

“Nova Scotia still relies heavily on foreign, potentially insecure sources of oil, despite Canada now reporting the second largest oil reserves in the world due to the tar sand reserves.”

Meanwhile nationally owned state oil companies are rushing to buy their stake in the oil rush… and Alberta, and Harper are letting them!

This is a big picture look at Harper’s approach to the environment, healthcare and seniors, energy security and the labour market…. even Canadian resource sovereignty! It’s clear that Stephen Harper is moving in the wrong direction and is not a good leader for Canada.