Â鶹ӰÊÓ

The four major party leaders faced off Thursday night in the first debate of the federal election.

The two-hour event focused on four main topics: the economy, energy and the environment, the state of Canada’s democracy, and foreign policy and security. Here, we've fact-checked the main points from each portion of the debate.

Economy

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper:

"Canada has the strongest economic growth, the strongest job creation record and the strongest income growth for the middle class among any of the major developed economies."

Let’s break this statement down, point by point.

Economic growth: The (IMF) slashed its forecasts for four of the G7 leading industrial countries, including Canada, last month. And in its July World Economic Outlook Projection, the IMF also predicted , placing Canada below the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain.

Job creation: Canada's unemployment rate has increased to 6.8 per cent, as of June, from 6.3 per cent in 2006, when Harper took power. But according to labour force surveys for the same time period, 16,396,000 Canadians had jobs in 2006, compared to 17,802,200 in 2014.

Globally speaking, Canada currently ranks 10th among OECD countries in terms of the, and third among G7 countries.

Growth for the middle class: According to the Pew Research Center, the Canadian middle class is shrinking. Their shows that the share of the Canadian population considered to have an upper-middle income decreased to 36 per cent in 2011 from 40 per cent in 2001, and that the share of middle income fell to 6 per cent from 9 per cent in the same time period. Meanwhile, the number of high-income Canadians rose to 56 per cent in 2011 from 49 per cent in 2001, ranking Canada number seven in the world for growth of high-income populations during that time period.

Energy and the environment

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May:

"With all due respect Mr. Prime Minister, the only way you can take credit for the emissions drop, which only occurred in 2008 and 2009, is the global financial crisis. That's the only thing that brought down our emissions … The cold, cruel reality is that under your watch, greenhouse gases have been rising."

This is depends on how you interpret the numbers.

, annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have fallen twice since 2006. GHGs fell from 761 megatons in 2007 to 741 megatons in 2008, and then again to 699 megatons in 2009.says the reason for the decrease was the global recession. GHGs started steadily increasing again from 2009 to 2013.

However, if one interprets those same numbers over a number of years -- rather than on a year-by-year basis -- Canada’s GHG emissions have actually decreased from 749 megatons in 2005 to 726 megatons in 2013.

State of Canada's democracy

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau:

"The fact is, he (Harper) made a solemn promise never to appoint a senator and he broke that promise on his very first day in as prime minister by appointing Michael Fortier to the Senate. And then he broke that promise 58 more times."

When Harper came into office in 2006, he said: "I don't plan to appoint senators; that's not my intention." Rather, he said he would reform the Red Chamber to make it an elected body.

But Harper went on to appoint 58 senators, including Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau.

There is no denying that Harper has long favoured Senate reform, despite his decision to appoint so many Conservatives to the Upper Chamber. Whether he plans to stand by his latest promise – a formalized – remains to be seen.

Foreign policy and security

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair:

"Despite what Mr. Harper just said, the mission in Iraq is not a NATO mission."

Harper:

"It’s not true what Mr. Mulcair says. Not a few of our NATO allies – all of our NATO allies – support this."

Technically speaking, the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State is not a NATO mission because it is not led by the organization. In fact, NATO has not received an invitation from the Iraqi or Syrian government to help fight the terror group. And on the basis that the ISIS mission is not endorsed by a multilateral organization, such as NATO or the United Nations, the NDP does not support Canada's involvement in it.

However, Harper is correct in saying that all NATO members are playing a role in the fight against ISIS. But there is a difference between a NATO-led mission, and a U.S.-led mission that involves NATO members.