● Amount that Canada could save each year by implementing a public, universal drug program: $10.7 billion
● Total number of pages of the RCMP’s personal file on former NDP leader Tommy Douglas: 1,142
● Number of pages that are still classified to this day: 215
● Percentage change in nominal GDP in Canada during the past ten years: + 54
● Percentage change in household debt in Canada during the same time: + 135
● Percentage of all debt in Canada that is in the form of mortgage debt: 70
● Number of documented slaves that existed throughout Canadian history: 4,092
● Of these, number that were First Nations peoples: 2,692
● Number that were of African descent: 1,400
● Estimated number of Canadians currently working as unpaid interns: 200,000
● Current monthly minimum wages in the Netherlands and Portugal, in Canadian dollars: $1,996, $768
● Current unemployment rates in the Netherlands and Portugal: 6.5, 17.8
● Number of corporations that control an estimated 80 percent of the world’s grain production: 4
● Date on which Tory MP Randall Garrison introduced a bill adding golfing as a tax-deductible business expense: 12/12/11
● Percentage of Canadians who believe in the principle that “the rich should pay more taxes”: 88
● Percentage of Albertan citizens who believe this: 82
● Percentage of Canadians who indicate they would support an additional tax on incomes over a million dollars: 89
● Percentage of all refugee claim submissions to Canada last year that were from Europeans: 23
● Percentage increase in the number of suicides in Greece since 2008: 60
● Number of years since 1995 that Canada Post has failed to make a profit: 1
● Number of provinces and territories in Canada that currently have card check authorization for union certification: 8
● Date on which Tory MP Blaine Calkins put forth a bill that would abolish the card check in federal workplaces: 06/02/13
● Per capita annual greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, in tonnes: 28.1
● Per capita annual greenhouse gas emissions in Sweden, in tonnes: 7
● Estimated government expenditures for building new reactors at the Darlington nuclear power plant in Ontario: $36 billion
● Time it will take until the 30 km radius around Chernobyl, Ukraine will again be able to sustain human life, in years: 20,000
● Cost ratio of producing a kilowatt of energy from nuclear power plants to that of a kilowatt from wind turbines: 2 to 1
● Percentage of citizens around the globe who believe the economic situation in their country is “good”: 39
● Percentage of Norwegian citizens who believe this about their country: 98
● Percentage of French citizens who believe this about theirs: 3
● Chance that a Canadian worker has witnessed illegal misconduct at their place of work: 2 in 5
● Of those, percentage who admit they did not report the misconduct: 48
● Percentage of Canadians who feel they “have to compromise their own personal ethics or values to keep their jobs”: 22
● Number of sexual and alcohol-related misconducts committed at work by RCMP officer Don Ray from 2006 to 2009: 7
● Number of days he was docked pay for his crimes by a January 2012 court ruling: 10
● Amount of wealth Apple Inc. moved offshore from the U.S. between 2009 and 2012 to avoid paying taxes: $74 billion
● Amount of wealth it would take each year to eradicate hunger and malnutrition throughout the entire world: $30 billion
● Percentage change in the number of U.S. College students who are in debt, between 2004 and 2012: +70
● Current total U.S. college student debt: $1 trillion
● Current total external debt of China: $734 billion
● Date on which NY Rangers hockey player Sean Avery made a public announcement supporting marriage equality: 05/05/11
● Days later in which Avery’s sports management agency criticized his statement as “very sad” and “misguided support”: 4
Our Times Tally is written by union communications and media consultant Sean Cain (www.labourmedia.org).
