Our Times Tally, Volume 32 – December 2015

● Number of additional Canadians who voted in the 2015 federal election compared to the 2011 federal election: 2,838,773
● Number of major newspapers throughout Canada that officially endorsed either the Conservative or Liberal parties: 28
● Number that officially endorsed the NDP: 0
● Amount of subsidies provided to the oil industry by governments around the world in 2013: $1.6 trillion
● Number of people around the world who die every year from air pollution: 7 million
● Per capita amount of garbage produced in Canada last year, in kilograms: 777
● Per capita amount of garbage produced in Japan last year, in kilograms: 377
● Amount of garbage that is dumped in the world’s oceans every year, in kilograms: 6.4 billion
● Percentage of post-secondary students in Canada who chose their particular program of study to please their parents: 28
● Combined Canadian federal-provincial corporate income tax rate in 1965: 53
● Rate in 2015: 26
● Rate of real GDP growth in Canada during the 1960s: 3.4
● Rate since 2010: 1.2
● Amount of lost annual federal government revenue resulting from corporate tax cuts from 2005 to 2013: $13 billion
● Estimated annual cost of maintaining a comprehensive, public, universal pharmacare program in Canada: $11 billion
● Percentage of Canadians who regularly cannot afford their prescription medication: 9.6
● Percentage who are without a regular family doctor: 15.5
● Total federal and provincial corporate income taxes in Canada as a percentage of GDP: 2.7
● Corporate income taxes in Norway as a percentage of GDP: 8.5
● Number of major U.S. corporations that spent more on lobbying than paying taxes in 2012: 25
● Amount by which annual increases in productivity have outpaced that of wages in Canada since 1961, in percent: 14.8
● Additional wealth a full-time worker would make this year alone if wages kept pace with productivity since then: $9,540
● Percentage of all jobs in Toronto classified as having “some degree of insecurity”: 44
● Percentage increase in likelihood that workers in insecure jobs in Toronto report suffering from depression: 55
● Percentage increase in the number of self-employed Canadians without employees, since 2006: 15.7
● Value of Alberta’s Heritage Savings Fund, developed from the province’s oil revenues: $17 billion
● Value of Norway’s Petroleum Sovereign Fund: $1.1 trillion
● Number of union leaders and members who have been murdered in Colombia since 1986: 2,800
● Percentage of these murders from which the killer was eventually brought to justice: 2
● Number of political prisoners currently being held in Colombian jails: 5,700
● Date on which the federal government added Colombia to the list of preferred countries to receive foreign aid: 02/01/2009
● Estimated number of additional people who will live in poverty due to climate change by the year 2030: 100 million
● Percentage increase in the number of extreme weather events since 1980: 300
● Percentage of retired Canadians who say they didn’t retire by choice: 41
● Percentage of retired Canadians who say they were “financially ready” on the day of their retirement: 53
● Estimated number of political protests in China each year: 40,000
● Percentage of Americans who believe that the government “should redistribute wealth by heavy taxes on the rich”: 52
● Percentage of Americans who believed this in 1940: 35
● Number of U.S. self-identified Republicans who would consider voting for a socialist candidate: 26
● Years ago that U.S. labour activist and songwriter Joe Hill was executed by firing squad: 100

Our Times Tally is written by union communications and media consultant Sean Cain (www.labourmedia.org).

SOURCES: 2,838,773 – Elections Canada; 28, 0 – Wikipedia (Newspaper Endorsements in the Canadian Federal Election, 2015); $1.6 trillion – International Monetary Fund (How Large are Global Energy Subsidies?); 7 million – World Health Organization (March 2014); 777, 377 – Conference Board of Canada; 6.4 billion – Solar Energy Report (June 2014); 28 – Ipsos Reid Poll (September 2015); 53, 26, 3.4, 1.2 – Jordan Brennan (Centre for Policy Alternatives); $13 billion – Parliamentary Budget Office; $11 billion – Pharmacare 2020 (The Future of Drug Coverage in Canada); 9.6 – Statistics Canada (Canada Community Health Survey); 15.5 – Statistics Canada (Access to a Regular Doctor); 2.7, 8.5 – Neil Brooks and Linda McQuaig (Canadian Dimension); 25 – Public Campaign and Citizens for Tax Justice; 14.8, $9,540 – Ellen Russell (Wilfred Laurier University) and Mathieu Dufour (Université du Québec); 44, 55 – United Way Toronto and McMaster University (May 2015); 15.7 – Statistics Canada (Labour Force Survey, February 2015); $17 billion, $1.1 trillion – Institute for Local Self-Reliance (October 2015); 2,800 – Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting (July 2013); 2, 5,700 – Justice for Colombia; 02/01/2009 – Globe and Mail (August 2011); 100 million – World Bank (Shock Waves: Managing the Impact of Climate Change on Poverty); 300 – New Internationalist (April 2015); 41, 53 – Ipsos Reid poll (August 2015); 40,000 – Communist Party of China Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs; 52, 35, 26 – Gallup Poll (May 2015, June 2015); 100 – Labor Notes.