The Lies They Tell

Sandra Dunham

A politician’s job is to be reelected and in this pursuit they tell lies. (I’m pretty quick on the uptake…aren’t I?) Our job is to elect the best possible government. This involves going to the polls when invited to do so and researching the candidates’ positions on current issues and their past performance. However, because not every word politicians speak is true, our bigger challenge is to figure out the truth. Your local media might be helpful in this pursuit.

The Toronto Star released “Jagmeet Singh says the Liberals and Conservatives are ‘controlled’ by corporate lobbyists. How true is that?” in April. While the journalist found that “control” was too strong a word, both parties were “influenced” by corporations and lobbyists. However, Maxime Boucher, expert on lobbying, claims that lobbying is “a necessary evil in democracy, because the solution to the ailment of lobbying is worse than lobbying. It will be to say to people, ‘Well, you don’t have the right to associate (with) and to petition the government.'”

It also released “Reality check: Pierre Poilievre says Justin Trudeau legalized hard drugs in British Columbia. Is that true?” The article investigates Poilievre’s claim that “The Liberal government granted the BC NDP’s request to allow hard drugs … in the province, including in public places. This reckless and radical and wacko policy has killed 2,500 British Columbians in one year alone.” The story is clear that Trudeau’s action was to “grant the B.C. government an exemption the province had sought in 2021 to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.” It goes on to clarify the difference between legalization and decriminalization. 

The reporter also examined the claim that the project in BC led to a 380% increase in deaths. The Star looked at the source of this information, comparing overdose deaths in 2015 (529 deaths) to 2023 (2,551 deaths) however they refute the soundness of this methodology. They believe that a fairer comparison would be to look at the year before the change (2022) when there were 2,385 deaths. Therefore, the year-over-year comparison is actually seven percent.

A recent Star article that drew my attention was Justin Trudeau claims Pierre Poilievre built just six affordable homes when he was housing minister. Here’s what actually happened. Poilievre’s rebuttal was that the actual number of homes built during this time was closer to 200,000 homes. Who’s telling the truth? It may not surprise you to learn that the answer is no one.

Poilievre was never Housing Minister, although for 9 months he did have CMHC (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) in his portfolio. The number six comes from the number of housing units that were funded exclusively by CMHC during that period. It excludes projects in which CMHC was a funding partner. In fact, in the 2015 to 2016 fiscal year, federal funding helped complete 3,742 non-profit units and 506 co-operative units. Poilievre’s 200,000 figure was actually the total number of housing units completed in 2015 according to Statistics Canada, much of which was private sector development and unrelated to government activity. 

These are essential insights into the mistruths involved in politics and serve as a reminder that it is our obligation as voters to do due diligence when considering the platforms and records of each candidate. We should appreciate that the Star has focused on the misrepresentations of each of the three major parties and hope that they expand on this work.