Has this been the truthiest election in Canadian history? Just maybe.

Well, that was some ridiculously truthy camapign that needed some ridiculously intense fact checking. If you found Nora's daily column useful, please chip in to keep independent media flourishing after October 19.

The problem with a Fact Check column is that your writing is tied to the truths and the lies spread around by political parties. When choosing where to hitch one's wagon, a politician's lies is probably the worst option. Sure, you'll travel around the word (so says Mark Twain, or something), but the ride will be frustrating and sad.

Distorting the meaning of words is an art, and Monday's election will reward the candidate who managed paint the most magnificent landscapes with the filthiest paints.

Early on, I argued that focusing solely on lies would limit this column, and I believe that it somewhat did. Because, after all, one man's lie is another man's election promise. But, with 34 articles in the bank, there was no shortage of claims that I had the pleasure of investigating.

And those articles didn’t nearly cover the sum total of the lies from this election. We didn't mention Cheryl Gallant, Conservative candidate for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke in Ontario, for example. She caught some attention at the start of her campaign by having a Twitter feed congratulating everyone and their dog for minor accomplishments (Thanks for supporting DARE! Congrats on your fourth place finish in the Open Stepdancing contest!...Actually there are a lot of congratulations to stepdancers and fiddlers there).

Gallant's recent advertisement, saying that she would save door-to-door mail delivery, was quickly identified as being a total joke: her party, of course, is the architect of dismantling Canada Post and she is a sitting MP.

Or, Yvon Boudreau, Conservative candidate in Manicouagan who announced that his party would support an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women. He backtracked on his comments before we could check his facts fast enough.

We helped cut through rhetoric about the deficit, the economy, the CBC and, of course, the televised debates. As the talking points took up more and more airspace, we looked at what candidates were saying, or in one case, what supporters were saying. My favourite fact to check was the claim about Bill C-51 being advanced by some Liberal supporters, that the bill was impossible to reject and will be impossible to repeal.

The week of September 21 was the worst one for this column. Every article that week received much fewer views than the others, with the article about Harper's human rights plan having been read the least of any article in the series.

The most successful piece, having received three-times as many hits as the average, was about Chris Alexander and his statements about Canada's refugee response. His comments lead to the turning point in the Conservative campaign where signs were showing that perhaps, they wouldn’t maintain their majority after all. 

The most popular set of articles all related to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It's no wonder: the TPP is the biggest trade agreement of our time, signed during an election and with no public text available for Canadians to see.

I've already voted, but if you're among the millions of Canadians who hasn't yet done so, please vote. I could tell you who to vote for too, if you'd like, just send me a message.

But if you're going to vote based on which party has been the most truthy, I can't help you. As Pontius Pilate says to Jesus in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar: "We all have truths, are mine the same as yours?"

None of the parties are going to bring the change that Canadians desperately need, though there's little question that four more years of Stephen Harper will be disastrous. So it's left to you: can you trust the Liberals? Can you influence the NDP? Will you vote Green in protest? Are you thinking of safely setting your ballot on fire?

Your time in a polling station on Monday should be your least significant and smallest act of democracy this year. Remember: the peoples' power is in the streets, but you have to actually get into the streets for it to work.

Well, that was some ridiculously truthy camapign that needed some ridiculously intense fact checking. If you found Nora's daily column useful, please chip in to keep independent media flourishing after October 19.