Open this photo in gallery: Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, left, and Liberal Leader Mark Carney participate in the English-language federal leaders' debate in Montreal, on April 17.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press The 45th general election campaign has now entered that unhappy phase, in which both the Liberal and Conservative leaders have taken to simply making things up. Both parties must be worried about what might happen on election day, to be putting forward such blatant canards. A reporter asked Liberal Leader Mark Carney on Monday why he had accused Pierre Poilievre of being willing to use the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to ban abortion, even though the Conservative Leader has explicitly said he would not.

“It’s not an accusation, it’s a fact. It’s a fact,” Mr. Carney replied. “He wants to ignore the Constitution of our country.” His tortured reasoning goes like this: Mr. Poilievre proposes to employ the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution to protect proposed Conservative legislation imposing consecutive life sentences on multiple murderers.

If the Conservative Leader is prepared to use the notwithstanding clause in that instance, Mr. Carney contends, then he will use it to outlaw abortions. The question, said Mr. Carney, is, “You start there, and you finish where? That is the question.” Liberals have been accusing Conservatives of having a secret agenda to ban abortion for decades, even though the Conservatives, including Mr. Poilievre, have promised they would never do so.

Mr. Carney’s accusation has no basis in fact. Mr. Poilievre offered a phantom menace of his own on Monday, when he claimed that Mr. Carney would tax equity on Canadians’ homes if the Liberals win the election. The Liberals are proposing many billions of dollars in new spending, he observed at an event.

“What happens when the finance officials tap them on the shoulder and say, ‘You’re out of money?’” he asked rhetorically. Answer: “They’re going to go out and they’re going to tax your home equity. They’re going to go after your house.” Mr. Poilievre has no more basis for claiming that the Liberals have a secret agenda to tax capital gains when selling a principal residence than Mr. Carney has for claiming the Conservatives have a secret agenda on abortion.

And if, for any reason, you might be tempted to believe either accusation, consider this: there is overwhelming support among Canadians for a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion. A Conservative government that acted to restrict that right would face defeat, not only in the next election, but in many elections to come. Similarly, a Liberal government that decided to raise revenue by taxing home equity would salt the political earth.

There are issues aplenty that the Liberals and Conservatives can use to criticize each other, real policies that matter to Canadians. There’s no need to conjure up phantoms.