Our Times Tally, Volume 35 – September 2016

● Number of years Canada Post has been profitable since 1994: 20
● Number of years Apple Inc. has been profitable since 1994: 19
● Amount that the Conference Board of Canada predicted Canada Post would lose in 2012: $250 million
● Amount that Canada Post earned in profit that year: $98 million
● Amount that the Conference Board of Canada predicts Canada Post will lose by the year 2020: $1 billion
● Percentage of union members in Canada who voted in the last federal election: 77
● Percentage of non-union members who did: 64
● Minimum number of First Nations languages that existed in North America at the beginning of the 16th century: 300
● Number that are widely spoken today: 20
● Percentage of Canadians who are in favour of expanding the Canada Pension Plan: 75
● Percentage who believe that “Canadians aren’t saving enough for retirement”: 86
● Percentage who would find it difficult to “meet their financial needs” if their paycheques were delayed a week: 51
● Total private debt as a percentage of GDP in Canada: 254
● Total private debt as a percentage of GDP in the United States at the time of the 2007 financial crash: 211
● Percentage of all household debt in Canada that consists of mortgage debt: 71
● Minimum number of households in Canada whose mortgage debt is greater than 500% of their disposable income: 500,000
● Percentage of Americans who believe that undocumented workers should legally be allowed to stay in the United States: 74
● Percentage of immigrants coming to the United States in 1910 who spoke some English: 45
● Percentage today who do: 87
● Percentage of people living in Canada who are immigrants: 21
● Percentage of people living in Canada that most Canadians think are immigrants: 35
● Year in which it became illegal to charge recruitment fees to live-in caregivers applying for jobs in Ontario: 2009
● Percentage of live-in caregivers in Ontario who report paying recruitment fees to apply for jobs since then: 66
● Number of deaths caused by terrorism in Europe and the Americas since the beginning of 2015: 658
● Number of deaths caused by terrorism in the rest of the world during the same period: 28,031
● Number of people in the U.S. killed by Islamic terrorists since 9/11: 94
● Number killed by cigarette smoking last year: 480,000
● Number killed by elevators last year: 27
● Number accidentally shot by toddlers during the first four months of 2016: 22
● Estimated percentage of African slaves brought to North America who were Muslims: 28
● Chance that a Canadian worker believes their job security has been negatively affected by technological change: 1 in 5
● Percentage of Canadians who believe new technologies will eliminate more jobs than it creates: 63
● Percentage who believe that “a guaranteed income program would give Canadians greater economic freedom”: 66
● Estimated percentage of all American jobs that are at risk of becoming automated over the next twenty years: 47
● Rank of the United States as the largest arms exporter to the Middle East: 1
● Rank of Canada: 2
● Number of armoured vehicles Canada has sold to Saudi Arabia since 1991: 1,700
● National median household income in the United States: $56,000
● National median household income in the United States for self-identified Donald Trump supporters: $72,000
● Primary school grade readability level of an average Donald Trump campaign press conference speech: 3

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

SOURCES: 20 – Canada Post Financial Reports; 19 – BusinessWeek Magazine; $250 million, $98 million – Canadian Union of Postal Workers; $1 billion – Conference Board of Canada (April 23, 2013); 77, 64 – Canadian General Social Survey (2016); 300, 20 – Columbia Encyclopedia (6th Edition, 2016); 75, 86 – Angus Reid Poll (June 2016); 51 – Canadian Payroll Association (2015); 254, 211 – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2016); 71 – Canadian Bankers Association; 500,000 – C.D. Howe Institute (2015); 74 – Pew Research Center (March 17-27, 2016); 45, 87 – Claude Fischer and Michael Hout (Century of Difference) and U.S. Census Bureau; 21, 35 – Ipsos MORI poll (October 2014); 2009, 66 – Metcalfe Foundation (Profiting from the Precarious: How Recruitment Practices Exploit Migrant Workers); 658, 28,031 – Washington Post (July 16, 2016); 94 – New America (International Security); 480,000 – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services); 27 – U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, Consumer Product Safety Commission; 22 – Washington Post (May 1, 2016); 28 – Southern Poverty Law Center; 1 in 5, 63, 66 – Angus Reid Poll (August 2016); 47 – Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne (Oxford University); 1, 2 – Defence and Security Intelligence and Analysis (2016); 1,700 – Globe and Mail (June 2, 2016); $56,000, $72,000 – U.S. Census Bureau, CBS News Exit Poll (August 2016); 3 – Jack Shafer (Politico Magazine, August 2015).