One of the greatest elements of leadership is courage

And courage rises from honesty. There are times when honesty is the least desirable of all possible expedients, but it leaves nothing open to question.

I teach this stuff.

I train young officers to face their fears, to overcome adversity, to believe in themselves. From that I hope they rely on their honesty to assess others, to assess their situation and, above all, to assess themselves.

So, when Bob Rae, for whom I held no particular respect, stands before parliament and makes an honest apology, I believe the man has personal courage.

Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae told a stunned House of Commons that one of his staffers was responsible for creating the Vikileaks30 Twitter account that circulated alleged details of Toews' divorce.

Rae said the offending staffer — later identified as Adam Carroll — had resigned, and the leader extended a full apology to Toews.

"I discussed the matter with that individual this morning. He offered his resignation and I've accepted his resignation," Rae told the Commons. "And I want to offer to the minister my personal apology to him for the conduct of the member of my staff.

I despise all politicians. To me, they are all the scum of the earth. They have let me down, lied, cheated and dodged in the name of keeping their jobs. Every one of them is little more than a bad example of human behaviour. 

In this case however, I'm willing to feed a bit of extra line. It has been so long since I saw an act which casts this country's parliament in honourable light that I thought it had passed from existence in my lifetime.

What Bob Rae did took personal courage. As the leader he explained as much as was necessary and then told the offended party that he was taking the blame and personally providing the apology.

In contrast, we get this from the prime minister.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is deflecting calls for an independent probe into alleged dirty tricks in the last federal election, telling opposition MPs to take their concerns to Elections Canada.

 No. Harper can take them to the mirror. And we can safely hold him up to a person with real leadership qualities. 

Bob Rae has nothing to back down from. Harper has nowhere to go.