In an election campaign plagued by misinformation, exaggerated claims and even lies, how can voters tell what’s true?
CBC’s Election Fact Check Unit has looked into dozens of statements made by the leaders of the four largest federal parties. It found that each of the leaders — some more than others — has at times made statements or cited facts that were either out of date, misleading or just plain false.
Here’s an overview of a few of the things each leader said on the campaign trail that didn’t quite pass the smell test.
The claim: On April 3, Carney told reporters on Parliament Hill that in 2008-09, when he was governor of the Bank of Canada, the country avoided a recession.
The facts: It didn’t. Canada did weather the crisis better than the United States, but its gross domestic product dropped for three consecutive quarters during that period — constituting a recession. Carney acknowledged this in February 2009, when he testified before the House of Commons finance committee.
“The global downturn and the declining demand for our exports will make this a very difficult year for Canada’s economy,” Carney told members of Parliament. “We are now in recession, with GDP projected to fall by 1.2 per cent this year.”
The claim: On March 26, Carney told reporters that motor-vehicle manufacturing was Canada’s second-largest export, providing 125,000 direct and nearly 500,000 indirect jobs.
The facts: The numbers Carney cited were out of date. According to Statistics Canada, motor-vehicle manufacturing was Canada’s third-largest export in 2024 and accounted for 138,520 direct jobs.
The claim: On March 23, the day he launched the election campaign, Carney accused Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of planning to eliminate foreign aid.
The facts: Poilievre has said there would be “massive” cuts in foreign aid because he believes too much Canadian government money is going to dictators, terrorist groups and global bureaucracies. However, he has not said that a Conservative government would completely eliminate foreign aid.
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The claim: In the final week of the campaign, Poilievre has often talked about a January 2025 report on social mobility in 2040 prepared by Policy Horizons, a think-tank within Employment and Social Development Canada. The report paints a bleak picture of Canada’s possible future. Poilievre has portrayed the report as containing predictions and scenarios resulting from Liberal government policies in recent years.
The facts: While the report looks at possible scenarios for Canada in 2040, it doesn’t make predictions. The report also includes a disclaimer saying that it “does not necessarily represent the views of the Government of Canada.”
The claim: Over the past week, ever since the Liberal Party released its platform, Poilievre has said repeatedly that the Liberal Party’s platform was drafted for former prime minister Justin Trudeau and that the party simply switched Carney’s name for Trudeau’s.
The facts: Poilievre bases his statement on an April 20 interview on CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live, where a panellist said Liberal MP Mona Fortier had been working on the platform for months, well before Carney became leader.
The Liberal Party says that although Fortier was consulting party members, advocates and experts while Trudeau was still prime minister, the party only began drafting the platform after Trudeau announced he would resign. A second Liberal says Carney and a team of advisers began working on the platform in January, while Carney was running to be Liberal leader.
The claim: On social media and during both the English and French debates, Poilievre has said that the Liberals’ Bill C-69, which allowed the federal government to look at the impact that resource development projects could have on climate change, blocked 16 projects and billions of dollars of investment.
The facts: Many of the projects Poilievre points to were cancelled prior to the bill receiving royal assent in June 2019, or were halted by provincial governments. In the case of other projects, such as the Energy East pipeline, companies pulled the plug after concluding that economic conditions had changed and the projects were no longer viable.
Fact-checking the federal leaders’ debate
The claim: On April 7, Singh pledged to double the Housing Accelerator Fund, a federal program for municipalities and Indigenous governments, and make it permanent. “The Liberal plan right now is to keep the Housing Accelerator Fund temporary. They’re not going to make it permanent,” he told reporters.
The facts: The Housing Accelerator Fund was a Liberal campaign promise in the 2021 election. The Trudeau government followed up by including the program in its 2022 budget and then launched the fund in 2023. The $4 billion fund is currently scheduled to run until 2026-27, and its goal is to help build 100,000 new homes.
On March 31, a week before Singh made his statement, Carney unveiled the Liberal Party’s plan to increase the number of homes built in Canada, including boosting the Housing Accelerator Fund. “My government will not just keep it, we will reinforce it, including by publicly reporting on municipalities’ progress to speed up permitting and approval timelines.”
The claim: During the French-language debate, Singh accused Poilievre of building only six houses when he was minister responsible for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) in 2015.
The facts: While the CMHC did build only six non-profit or community housing units during that time, it also partnered with private companies in projects that built 3,742 non-profit homes as well as 506 co-ops, for a total of more than 4,000 homes. During the debate, however, Poilievre responded that he got 200,000 homes built while he was minister. That is also inaccurate. In 2015 nearly 200,000 homes were built across Canada, but the vast majority were built by private companies — not the government.
Fact-checking the numbers in the parties’ platforms
The claim: On April 10, Blanchet told a news conference that professional human-smuggling networks had begun advertising packages that included a safe place in Canada to stay for two weeks.
The facts: Under the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States, refugee claimants who try to enter Canada from the U.S. are turned back at the border unless they qualify for an exemption. In 2022, the two countries signed an additional protocol that includes a provision that allows someone who has been in the U.S. to make an asylum claim in Canada without being turned back if they have been in the country for at least 14 days.
Asked by CBC News for the source of Blanchet’s claim, the Bloc pointed to a December 2024 Radio-Canada story about irregular border crossings that mentions that “different networks” were helping refugee claimants who make it to Canada from the U.S. to hide for two weeks. However, the article does not refer to professional, for-profit, human-smuggling organizations, and the networks could include well-meaning volunteers or groups.
The claim: In both the English and French debates, Blanchet accused Carney of saying one thing in Quebec and another thing in the rest of Canada, and said the Liberal leader was prepared to force oil and gas pipelines through Quebec, against the will of Quebecers.
The facts: While Carney’s message on pipelines has shifted at various times, he has not said that he would force pipelines through Quebec against its will.
In a speech in February in British Columbia, Carney said he would use federal government powers to build a trade corridor, clean-energy projects and energy infrastructure. He then told the CBC that he would accelerate approvals for pipelines in consultation with provinces and First Nations. A few days later, he told Radio-Canada that he would never impose a pipeline on Quebec.
In April, when he appeared on the popular Radio-Canada television show Tout le monde en parle, Carney said the government would choose a few big projects and that those projects would need social acceptance. “Not necessarily pipelines, but maybe pipelines,” he said. “We’ll see.”
