Canada's truthiest election campaign begins: Don Pittis

The Harper Conservatives are the balanced-budget party. You might as well get that into your head now, because you are going to be hearing it repeated till election day.

This is also the economic stewardship party,the spending-on-transit partyandthe party fighting for the poor and middle class. Yesterday,Finance Minister Joe Oliver even implied they were thefight-against-climate-change party.

An independent analyst might dispute those statements.In fact, independent analysts in newspapers and columns across the country have been doingjust that this week following Oliver's federalbudget.But in what is shaping up to be Canada's"truthiest" election campaign, scientific evidence doesn't strictly matter.

• Joe Oliver's budget: Ignore the sleight of hand
• Conservatives dig into contingency to hit surplus

Truthiness, as coined byU.S. comedian StephenColbert, is something expressed as a truth because it is afeeling from the heartwithoutevidence or logic.

After reading a wonderful pieceby Oxford economistJohn Kay called "How beliefs became truths forthe political establishment,"it struck me that this is exactly what we are seeingin our own Canadian (pre-)electioncampaign.

As well as claiming a balanced budget, Oliver promised spending on transit and otherinfrastructure and tax breaks that would stimulate the economy. Butthere may be less substanceto these boaststhan appear.

Economicalwith the truth

There is nothing new in theaccusationthatpoliticians areeconomical with the truth. In fact, in a system like Canada's, where caucus solidarity is so strongly enforced, the ability to lie with a straight face is essential for survival. That's because no matter what your true feelings are on any issue, you must always speak and act as if the party line is actuallyyour own.

But truthiness is different. Instead of just white lies to make sure everyone sings from the same songbook, withtruthiness, the party view becomes an articleof faith.

"Truthiness is the belief that comes when conviction is prized over information," Kay wrotein Tuesday's Financial Times.

Kay refers to the case of U.S. presidential candidateRick Santorum, whooncemaintainedthattheelderly in the Netherlandswere being"euthanized involuntarily." When Dutch citizens complained it was factually not true, a Santorum aide justified the statementon the grounds that the politician "says what's in his heart."

Kay says conservatives do not have a lock on truthiness, quoting aGuardian commentator who insisted thatwe should believe Rolling Stone magazine's alleged rape victimat the University of Virginiaon principle,even after her accusations weredisproved.

Partisan conclusions

In elections, the danger implied in truthiness is that it takes dishonesty an extra step so that it cannot be honestly challenged. And thatis one more nail in the coffin of evidence-based democracy.

Instead of a careful examination of issues and their consequences, we jump, first, to partisan conclusions. It represents the destruction of Socratic logic, so we no longerexamine the thesis, then the antithesis and come to a synthesis. Why bother? We already know the answers.

It is true that scientific evidence can be interpreted in many ways. Economics is even less stable ground, with each economist offering a different description of what is happening in the world.

But in this Canadian pre-election campaign, we are entering a never-never-land where facts seem to have become unimportant.

According tothe Bank of Canada, the economy grew at zero percent at the beginning of the year yet Oliver takes credit for wise financial stewardship. Spending for promises such as infrastructure projects doesn't kick in until after the election, when theConservatives may not even be in power.And as almost everyone except our finance minister hasobserved, balancing a budget with contingencyreserves and assets salesis balancing in name only.

The truth behindtruthy

The odd thing is that speaking a truth all of us can believe may have helped the government more than it hurt. It may well be true that cutting taxes is the best of all forms of stimulus.It may be that helping well-off Canadians with income splitting and higher limits on tax-free savings accountswill help the entire economy, creating capital pools and motivating the poor.

It maybe that Conservativestruly believe climate change is not true, or not a problem.If so, they should tell us why it is so, not send the environment minister to accuse the provinces of not doing enough to mitigate itor the natural resourcesminister to boast ofthe government's "already exemplary record of environmental performance."

• Ottawa says provinces fall short on greenhouse gas cuts

I'm not sure the comments section below this column is an accurate sample of the Canadianelectorate, but I am often disturbed by the polarized and "truthy" debate fromthose who support the Harper government and those who come toopposing conclusions, writing from the heart, not the head.

Truthinessis the home and refuge of the true believer. Each party has those, and we know which way they will vote.

But elections are decided by the undecided.As the New Democrats, Liberals, Greens and others begin to bring out their own platforms, the voters who count will be the oneswholook for the truth behind the truthy.