State of the Truth Address

FactCheck, a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics, has monitored the factual accuracy of what was said by President Donald Trump in the State of the Union Address on February 24 2026. Their goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

Fact Finding the State of the Union Address

Trump SOTU Fact Check Full story here: https://www.factcheck.org/2026/02/factchecking-trumps-state-of-the-union-address/
	Trump’s State of the Union Address	Fact Checking the SOTU Address
1	Trump falsely claimed that he inherited “a stagnant economy” with “inflation at record levels.”	Annual growth in real GDP was 2.5% or higher each year under former President Joe Biden, and the annual inflation rate was down to 3% from its peak of 9.1% peak when Trump took office.
2	The president went on to claim that the economy “is roaring like never before,”	Real GDP growth in 2025 was down to 2.2%, according to a federal estimate. Also, the unemployment rate has increased slightly under Trump.
3	He misleadingly claimed that prices are “plummeting downward” because of his policies.	The annual rate of inflation has declined, but prices overall are still increasing.
4	Trump’s claim that “more Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country,”	while accurate, doesn’t account for population growth. Job growth slowed a bit last year.
5	The president misleadingly claimed that Americans “will now pay the lowest price anywhere in the world for drugs.”	The administration’s negotiations with drug companies may have lowered prices for some specific drugs in certain situations, but there is no evidence of a widespread decline in prices.
6	The president continued to exaggerate the decline in gasoline prices, saying they are “now below $2.36 a gallon in most states.”	In no state was the average that low. And the nationwide average is $2.94.
7	He claimed to have presided over a “tremendous renewal” of religion in America,	Recent polling has found the opposite.
8	Trump claimed that $1,776 “warrior dividend” bonus checks paid to military personnel came from tariff revenue.	It was actually a reallocation of funds initially earmarked for an increased housing allowance.
9	The president repeated his unsupported claim that many immigrants came from “prisons” and “mental institutions,”	He wrongly claimed that the Biden administration allowed in “11,888 murderers.”
10	Trump boasted about stock market gains since his election	The gains were less than each of the last two years under Biden.
11	He exaggerated when he said his signature legislation eliminated tax on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits for seniors.	The tax breaks are substantial but do not apply to all individuals.
12	As he has for years, Trump insisted, without evidence, that “cheating is rampant in our elections.”	He claimed legislation was needed “to stop illegal aliens” from voting, though evidence suggests that’s rare.
13	Trump claimed that the federal budget could be balanced “if we’re able to find enough of that fraud.”	The most recent budget deficit was $1.8 trillion, more than three times higher than the highest federal estimate of government money lost annually to fraud.
14	Trump claimed that he inherited “rampant crime at home” and later boasted that “last year, the murder rate saw its single largest decline in recorded history.”	Crime and murder was down last year, continuing a trend that began in 2022.
15	Trump made the dubious claim that his increased tariffs would one day replace income taxes,	Something many economists say doesn’t add up.
16	Trump claimed that the U.S. “obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program” last year.	Experts have said the program was damaged but not destroyed, and Trump is now considering military action over Iran’s nuclear program.
17	Trump said “American oil production is up by more than 600,000 barrels a day,”	Crude oil production increased by 334,600 barrels per day in his first full 10 months in office.
18	He also claimed that U.S. natural gas production increased to “an all-time high” because he “kept” his “promise to drill, baby, drill.”	Production of natural gas was already at record levels before he took office.

Fact Finding the State of the Truth Address February 24, 2026

Trump’s Feb. 24 address was longer than any prior SOTU, clocking in at over 1 hour and 47 minutes, as measured by the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

References

By Robert Farley, D'Angelo Gore, Lori Robertson, Jessica McDonald, Kate Yandell, Saranac Hale Spencer, Sanjana Juvvadi, Andrew Noh and Ashley Wang. (n.d.). FactChecking Trump’s State of the Union Address. FactCheck.org - A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center. Retrieved February 25, 2026, from https://www.factcheck.org/2026/02/factchecking-trumps-state-of-the-union-address/ 

Polarization Populism and Plenty of Guns

The murder of Charlie Kirk has generated many comments from across the political spectrum in the United States and around the world.

Good Government avoids Polarization and Populism

Perhaps we need to examine the danger of polarization in the messages of the people who draw large audiences for their political speech. Populism is a technique to gather crowds by telling them what they want to hear and affirming misconceptions and misinformation while avoiding truthful analysis and explanation of reality. When access to a Plenty of Firearms is added to Polarization and Populism, we create the conditions for violence as a response to politicians with whom we disagree. Canada needs to consider how we will deal with these anti democratic dangers as the next election cycle approaches.

Supply or Speculation

A plan to alleviate the shortage of housing in Canada is likely to be mentioned in the political platforms of all persons seeking election federally, provincially, and in municipalities. The plans may differ depending on the understanding of the authors about the root cause of the shortage.

Affordable Housing For Canadians

Commentary from the RateSpy website in 2020 underlined the importance of supply and the Law of Supply and Demand in the availability and affordability of housing in Canada.

On that note, an IMF report last October had a radical solution to Canada’s housing crisis: “ To Tackle Housing Affordability in Canada, Build More Houses.” Hey, they might be onto something.

In truth, there’s no easy cure that doesn’t disadvantage someone. Real progress takes hard fixes, like incentivizing more homes within tolerable commutes to job centres, building ultra-high-speed transit to regions with cheaper land, or other capital, time or bureaucratic-intensive solutions. Or maybe it takes more out-of-the-box thinking, like government land acquisition partnerships or near-interest free financing to developers that build strategic high-density housing in/near public transportation corridors.

The Department of Finance has said it many times; home construction is “needed to address…housing supply shortages in Canada, particularly in our largest cities.” The 2019 Federal Budget stated that increasing the supply of housing “is the most effective way to address affordability in the long run.” Righto. Because whatever the solution, supply is the problem, and it has been for 20 years. (Who Repealed the Law of Supply and Demand?, 2020)

Steve Pomeroy, Industry Professor, Department of Health Aging and Society, McMaster University, advises to solve the housing problem we need to address supercharged demand.

If policy-makers and the newly re-elected government want to improve housing affordability and the ability of young families to become homeowners, they need to turn their attention to the primary driver of price increases — super-charged demand, abetted by the sacred cow of non-taxation of capital gains on a principal residence.(Pomeroy, 2021)

Mark Morris, who has established and sold numerous businesses in the legal space and is presently the principal lawyer at LegalClosing.ca and runs and operates LegalReview.ca, shares the opinion that we need governments that can refocus economic incentives around real business value and promote programs that foster enduring products and services with economic potential beyond Airbnb. This will involve unwinding any number of perverse incentives designed to foster real estate growth at the expense of everything else.

Or consider the principal residence exemption, which is usable over and over again by individuals for any amount of money garnered from the sale of their home, as long as they lived in it. Compare that to the sale of shares of an active Canadian business, which is tax-free only on an amount of less than a million dollars and, even then, is only available for use once in a lifetime. 

These perverse incentives exist throughout our system and need to be addressed if this country is to continue to remain on course.

Canada is hooked on real estate. We need to detox fast for our sake, for our children's future and, above all, for all future aspiring business creators who would seek to develop their skills in a system that encourages rather than punishes their efforts. (Morris, 2022)

Adena Ali, of the The Canadian Press, reported that, according to the CMHC, Canada needs 5.8 million new homes by 2030.

If current rates of new construction continue, CMHC said the country's housing stock is expected to increase by 2.3 million units by 2030, reaching close to 19 million units total. But in order to achieve affordability for all Canadians, the agency said an additional 3.5 million homes are needed.

Softening housing market conditions and a labour shortage in the construction sector could get in the way of bringing Canada's housing stock to more than 22 million by 2030, however.

"There are supply issues, labour shortages at the moment and the cost of financing is going up, so clearly there are short-term challenges," said CMHC deputy chief economist Aled ab Iorwerth during a conference call.

BMO economist Robert Kavcic says it will be tough to achieve what the CMHC wants to achieve.

"The jobless rate in construction is near a record low; vacancies are at a record high, we have a deep shortage of skilled trades, and the cost of building materials is already rising quickly," he said. "So, unless the economy really rolls over and is in need of stimulus, effectively doubling the rate of new construction over the next decade will be extremely difficult without significant inflationary pressure." (Ali, 2022)

Supply, speculation, demand, and the lack of taxes on the sale of principal residences are cited as contributors to the shortage of available housing in Canada. In the next election cycles, we expect the successful candidates will support policy to tackle this disastrous situation.

References

Ali, A. (2022, June 23). Canada needs 5.8 million new homes by 2030 to tackle affordability crisis, CMHC warns. CBC. Retrieved August 26, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/housing-affordability-cmhc-report-2030-1.6498898 

Morris, M. (2022, June 21). Canada is hooked on real estate. It needs a detox. CBC. Retrieved August 26, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-canada-real-estate-addiction-morris-1.6492967 

Pomeroy, S. (2021, November 25). Want to solve the housing crisis? Address super-charged demand. The Conversation. Retrieved August 26, 2023, from https://theconversation.com/want-to-solve-the-housing-crisis-address-super-charged-demand-169809 

Who Repealed the Law of Supply and Demand? (2020, September 16). Ratespy.com. Retrieved August 26, 2023, from https://www.ratespy.com/who-repealed-the-law-of-supply-and-demand-opinion-091615871 

Party platforms and the climate emergency.

Resources from the National Observer and analysis reported by Prof K Harrison on Twitter give an overview of party platforms to address the climate emergency.

Analysis https://simondonner.com/2021/09/18/rounding-the-base-long-term-climate-goals-and-the-federal-election/ 

 

Pricing Subsidies Budget

EV Electricity Nuclear

Emissions Retro-fits Jobs

Transition Accountability Carbon Capture

Nature Natural Gas Fuel

K Harrison Analysis

 

This overview will provide information important for our voting decision.

 

References

1	(2021, August 18). Election 2021: Your last-minute guide to where the parties stand on .... Retrieved September 15, 2021, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/08/18/explainer/election-2021-main-federal-parties-plan-fight-climate-crisis
2	Updated comparison of targets and policies as of September 12. Harrison,K.[@ProfKHarrison]. Sept 13,2021. Updated comparison of targets... [Tweet].[twitter].https://twitter.com/ProfKHarrison/status/1437198558730457095

Some September comments on 2021 election platforms

In advance of the September 20, General Election, the party platforms have been analysed by the voting public and many political commentators. Some of that work is presented here. Nik Nanos, the chief data scientist at Nanos Research reported at the end of August on the question of which party the respondents trusted on various issues.[1]

 

 

Andrew Coyne comments that the key to understanding any party platform is to read the part that is written in invisible ink: There is what it says, and then there is what it does not say, which is usually far more significant.[2].

 

Ricardo Tranjan reports that parties don't get it. Renting is not a phase. It's time to shift the housing debate. [3]

 

There are other differences, of course, on climate change, COVID-19 policy, and a host of smaller promises. And there is still a sense in this campaign that the two biggest parties haven’t fully captured the priorities of Canadians. Campbell Clark, reports in the Globe and Mail, that the words have been all over the place, but the numbers make the differences clear.[4]

  

 

Professor Kathryn Harrison is concerned with climate policy target ambition, policy ambition, transparency, cost, progressivity, and feasibility (constitutional and admin).[5]

 

Patrick Brethour reports, in the Globe and Mail, on the assessment of party platforms by the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy.[6]

 

A review of this analysis of party platforms may be valuable in making a voting decision.

 

References

1	(2021, September 3). Poll shows three-quarters of Canadians don't ... - The Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 4, 2021, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-poll-shows-three-quarters-of-canadians-dont-see-the-election-as/
2	(2021, September 3). They may differ (slightly) in what they say, but in what they don't say .... Retrieved September 3, 2021, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-they-may-differ-slightly-in-what-they-say-but-in-what-they-dont-say/
3	(2021, September 7). Platform Crunch: Parties don't get it—renting is not a phase. Retrieved September 8, 2021, from https://monitormag.ca/articles/platform-crunch-parties-dont-get-it-renting-is-not-a-phase
4	(2021, September 10). The numbers make the differences between Liberals and .... Retrieved September 10, 2021, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-the-numbers-make-the-differences-between-liberals-and-conservatives/
5	Updated comparison of targets and policies as of September 12. Harrison,K.[@ProfKHarrison]. Sept 13,2021. Updated comparison of targets... [Tweet].[twitter].https://twitter.com/ProfKHarrison/status/1437198558730457095
6	(2021, September 13). Tories, Liberals and NDP eye billions of dollars from cracking down .... Retrieved September 13, 2021, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/taxes/article-tories-liberals-and-ndp-eye-billions-of-dollars-from-cracking-down-on/