Reality Check

Recently in Conservatives Category

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What is truth in an election campaign?

By Ira Basen on April 30, 2011 3:47 PM

Categories: Coalition, Conservatives, Election, Liberals, NDP, Partisanship

At Reality Check we take what politicians say at face value. Maybe that's a mistake.
Fail

The cost of being tough on crime

By David McKie on April 30, 2011 9:54 AM

Categories: Conservatives, Crime, Liberals, NDP

The Conservatives have used their so-called tough-on-crime agenda to drive a wedge between themselves and their political opponents. But the issue here is cost.
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The NDP and price of doctors

By Meagan Fitzpatrick on April 29, 2011 4:08 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Health, NDP

The NDP is promising to add 1,200 doctors over the next 10 years and has a thought-out plan. But is it really accounting for all the additional costs to the health-care system?
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What comes next? Post-election scenarios and the Constitution

By Laura Payton on April 29, 2011 1:03 PM

Categories: Coalition, Conservatives, Election

The surprising increase in NDP popularity makes this election harder than usual to predict. But there are three main scenarios that could play out after election day.
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Surgical wait times: how much progress have we really made?

By David McKie on April 28, 2011 7:59 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Health, Liberals, NDP

Most parties - and governments - appear to believe progress has been made reducing surgical wait times. But when you look closer that may not be the case.
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UPDATE: How much for that F-35 jet in the window?

By Reality Check Team on April 26, 2011 2:00 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Liberals, Military

So how much will Canada's next generation fighter jet - the proposed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - really cost?
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Attacking the NDP: killers of child care and raisers of taxes

By Meagan Fitzpatrick on April 25, 2011 5:17 PM

Categories: Child care, Conservatives, Elizabeth May, Jack Layton, Liberals, NDP, Taxes

Rising in the polls, the NDP are suddenly being targeted by the Liberals who accuse them of killing national child care and 'jacking up your taxes.' And the basis for this?
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The National Pharmaceutical Strategy: a 'prescription unfilled'

By David McKie on April 24, 2011 6:37 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Health, Liberals, NDP

In 2004, Ottawa and the provinces promised a National Pharmaceutical Strategy to make prescription drugs more accessible. But as David McKie reports that promise is far from being filled.
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Union support for Conservative budget? Sort of.

By Laura Payton on April 23, 2011 2:34 PM

Categories: Budget, Conservatives

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper says the Canadian Labour Congress supported the Tories' March 22 budget, but the CLC says that's not quite true. Click through to see why.
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Conservative promise to speed up deportations

By Meagan Fitzpatrick on April 21, 2011 6:25 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Crime

Conservatives are promising to speed up deportations of 'dangerous foreign criminals' convicted of sentences of less than two years. How dangerous are we talking about?
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VIDEO: Unemployment and what the parties are promising

By Reality Check Team on April 21, 2011 1:44 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, Unemployment

Is Canada facing structural unemployment? Amanda Lang looks at the numbers and what the parties are promising to do about it.
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Food safety: the forgotten issue?

By David McKie on April 20, 2011 2:09 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Health, Liberals, NDP

In 2008, reeling from the tainted meat crisis, federal leaders promised to revamp Canada's food safety system. This time, there is money on the table but no real plans for a problem that spans the globe.
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Conservative ad: The Liberals and human smuggling

By Ira Basen on April 19, 2011 7:35 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Crime, Immigrants, Liberals

A Conservative ad claims the Liberals oppose detaining illegal migrants and tougher sentences for human smugglers. It is a dispute over a government bill that few support.
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Ken Dryden playing "fast and loose" with the facts? Or, being misquoted?

By Meagan Fitzpatrick on April 19, 2011 3:20 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Liberals

The Conservatives dumped on Liberal Ken Dryden for claiming he was the minister who created the GIS for seniors in 1967. But that's not what he said and they should have known.
Fail

NDP targets Ignatieff on abortion issue

By Meagan Fitzpatrick on April 18, 2011 2:45 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Health, Liberals, NDP, Women

In a 'reality check' of its own, the NDP says Ignatieff's voting record does not match his words on abortion and a woman's right to choose. Sorry, NDP, that's a bit of a stretch.
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Liberal ad: Stephen Harper versus the Canada Health Act

By Laura Payton on April 18, 2011 1:58 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Election, Liberals

In a new ad, the Liberals quote Stephen Harper from 1997 saying the Canada Health Act 'should be scrapped.' He may have felt that way, but these weren't his words.
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VIDEO: Spending controls for the G8

By Reality Check Team on April 18, 2011 11:56 AM

Categories: Auditor General, Coalition, Conservatives

VIDEO: Ottawa didn't appear to keep close tabs on the $50-million, G8 fix-up to Tony Clement's riding. But as Diana Swain discovers, it was a different story elsewhere.
Fail

Debate night scrapbook, two passes and a bunch of fails

By Ira Basen on April 17, 2011 3:38 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton, Leaders' debate, Liberals, Michael Ignatieff, Stephen Harper

Debate night passes and fails: 'Mr. Harper you used to care about the environment' and other rhetorical excesses.
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Who wants to charge a $75 iPod tax? Uh, no one

By Laura Payton on April 15, 2011 4:15 PM

Categories: Coalition, Conservatives, Liberals, Taxes

UPDATED: In a new ad, the Conservatives say Canada's other parties want to charge you a $75 tax on iPods and smart phones. Not so, in fact the record on this is pretty clear.
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AUDIO: Does cutting the deficit mean cutting programs

By Reality Check Team on April 15, 2011 2:28 PM

Categories: Budget, Conservatives, Taxes

AUDIO: Can the Conservatives trim an extra $11 billion from spending without cutting programs? Curt Petrovich talks to some outside experts who doubt that can happen.
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Family reunification: Still waiting for mom and dad

By David McKie on April 15, 2011 2:13 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Immigrants, Leaders' debate, Liberals, Michael Ignatieff, Stephen Harper

The Conservatives say they are increasing immigration across all categories. That's not fully the case, though, when it comes to family reunification.
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Temporary foreign workers: why so many all of a sudden?

By Ira Basen on April 14, 2011 6:49 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Immigrants, Jack Layton, Stephen Harper

Stephen Harper defended the big increase in foreign 'guest workers' and said most settle here. It may be true but the program isn't set up for that and no one is keeping tabs.
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Immigration spat: Who is being let in and why?

By Reality Check Team on April 13, 2011 7:32 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Immigrants

AUDIO: The immigration spat. Who exactly is being allowed in and kept out? An As It happens reality check.
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How did we get here? A matter of debate

By Meagan Fitzpatrick on April 13, 2011 1:38 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Contempt, Election, Leaders' debate, Michael Ignatieff, Stephen Harper

Why is there an election? Political opportunism or a government that was 'in contempt of Parliament?' A forensic look at the Harper - Ignatieff election rationales.
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$11 billion is a big hole

By Laura Payton on April 12, 2011 3:01 PM

Categories: Budget, Conservatives, Liberals

The Conservative party managed to find an extra $11 billion in "savings" in the two and a half weeks between the budget and their platform release. Will this cash ever appear?
Fail

Conservatives: Health funding 'at an all-time high'

By Meagan Fitzpatrick on April 11, 2011 11:45 AM

Categories: Conservatives, Health, Liberals

The Conservative claim: We've increased health-care funding to an all-time high. True, but that is because the law, established by a former Liberal PM, mandates that spending.
Fail

The "Ignatieff-led Coalition" and its "soft-on-crime agenda"

By Ira Basen on April 10, 2011 11:58 AM

Categories: Conservatives, Crime, Liberals

Living on the wedge: The Conservative claim that the Liberals are soft on crime and obstructing the government's agenda.
Fail

Pardon me? Once more on the soft-on-crime allegation

By Ira Basen on April 10, 2011 11:50 AM

Categories: Conservatives, Crime, Liberals

The Conservatives say the Liberals are soft on crime and have been obstructing new laws. We look at a particular case: the Limiting Pardons for Serious Crimes Act.
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VIDEO: Cutting the deficit sooner, the new Tory promise

By Reality Check Team on April 9, 2011 11:29 AM

Categories: Budget, Conservatives, Stephen Harper

The budget promised no deficit by 2015-16. But now Stephen Harper says he will do it a year earlier, despite a raft of election promises. Amanda Lang parses the numbers.
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Platform comparison: the policies in common

By Meagan Fitzpatrick on April 8, 2011 2:46 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Health, Liberals, Seniors

Singing from the same hymnbook? The Conservatives, Liberals and NDP have at least five policy planks in common. We compare and contrast.
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The Conservatives and health-care transfers

By Laura Payton on April 8, 2011 1:00 PM

Categories: Budget, Conservatives, Health, Stephen Harper

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper says his party's been consistent about continuing health transfers to the provinces after 2014. But it is more like consistently vague.
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VIDEO: Why people are being turned away from Tory events

By Reality Check Team on April 7, 2011 12:16 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Partisanship

As Diana Swain reports, the rationale for kicking people out of Conservative rallies isn't security of the PM, it is security of the message.
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Loans for immigrant professionals seeking accredition

By Meagan Fitzpatrick on April 6, 2011 5:09 PM

Categories: Conservatives, Immigrants

The Tory promise: "New loans to help recent immigrants pay for skills training or upgrading." The reality: We will help the agencies that help you deal with the banks.
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