Every figure in More Than a Ballot comes from one of the sources below, read at the source on 26 October 2026. Each entry says what the source shows and, where it matters, what it does not.
[13] currentLaw
Parliament of Canada. Justice Laws.
The Board must certify a union if satisfied that a majority of the employees in the unit wish to have it represent them.
What it does not show. Applies to federally regulated workplaces only; most workers certify through a provincial board.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-2/section-28.html
[20] 1982Law
Constitution Act, 1982, Part I. Justice Laws.
Everyone has the fundamental freedoms of peaceful assembly and of association.
What it does not show. Subject to reasonable limits under section 1.
[22] 2006Law
Province of Ontario. e-Laws.
The assembly was a chair and one member from each of 103 electoral districts.
[24] currentLaw
Parliament of Canada. Justice Laws.
A federally regulated employee may refuse to use a machine or thing, work in a place or perform an activity if they have reasonable cause to believe it constitutes a danger.
What it does not show. Federally regulated workplaces only.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-2/section-128.html
[25] currentLaw
Province of Ontario. e-Laws.
A worker may refuse to work or do particular work where equipment, the physical condition of the workplace or workplace violence is likely to endanger them.
What it does not show. Police, firefighters, correctional and some health workers have limited refusal rights under s.43(1) and (2).
[28] currentLaw
Parliament of Canada. Justice Laws.
The purpose is to enhance the accountability and transparency of federal institutions in order to promote an open and democratic society and to enable public debate on their conduct.
[31] currentLaw
Government of Canada. Justice Laws.
The application fee is $5.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-83-507/page-1.html
[5] 2026Measured
Food Banks Canada. foodbankscanada.ca.
2,355,075 food bank visits in March 2026, up 8.7 per cent on 2025 and 117 per cent above 2019; 32.5 per cent were children.
What it does not show. Counts visits in one month, not unique people.
[6] 2025Measured
Statistics Canada. The Daily.
Informal volunteering (helping people directly) fell from 74 to 66 per cent of people 15 and over; formal volunteering from 41 to 32 per cent. The decline came mostly from community improvement; people helping others directly fell 3 per cent and their hours did not decline significantly.
What it does not show. Self-reported survey.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/250623/dq250623b-eng.htm
[8] 2022Measured
Statistics Canada. The Daily, 21 September 2022.
5.0 million renter households, 33.1 per cent of households; renter households grew 21.5 per cent from 2011 to 2021, owners 8.4 per cent.
What it does not show. Renters and owners do not sum to 100 per cent; band housing and other tenures make up the rest.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220921/dq220921b-eng.htm
[9] 2025Measured
Tribunals Ontario. tribunalsontario.ca.
87,993 applications received; 77,039 from landlords, 45,435 of them to evict for non-payment of rent (L1); 10,397 from tenants; 2,110 tenant maintenance applications (T6).
What it does not show. Ontario only. Applications filed, not outcomes.
https://tribunalsontario.ca/documents/TO/Tribunals_Ontario_2024-2025_Annual_Report.html
[10] 2025Measured
Statistics Canada. Table 14-10-0129-01.
30.6 per cent of employees covered by a collective agreement in 2025 (5.6 million of 18.3 million); union membership 28.5 per cent.
What it does not show. Coverage and membership are different measures; the table is revised with the survey.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410012901
[11] 2024Measured
Statistics Canada. StatsCAN Plus, 26 November 2024.
Coverage was 33.7 per cent in 1997; private-sector coverage fell from 21.3 per cent in 1997 to 15.5 per cent in 2023, while public-sector coverage reached 76.7 per cent.
What it does not show. Gives 2023 coverage as 30.4 per cent, since revised in the table.
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/7416-state-unions-canada
[12] 2024Measured
House of Commons. ourcommons.ca.
Unionized employees earned $37.26 an hour in August 2024 against $34.30 for others; the raw gap was 31 per cent in 1997, 20 per cent in 2017 and 10 per cent in 2023.
What it does not show. A raw gap, not a causal union premium; part of it reflects which jobs are unionized.
https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/HUMA/meeting-123/evidence
[14] 2025Measured
Toronto Public Library Board. tpl.ca.
28.1 million items circulated in 2024, up 12.5 per cent; about 45 million total visits, 13.4 million of them in branches.
What it does not show. One library system, not a national total; no primary national count is published.
[15] 2024Measured
Government of British Columbia. gov.bc.ca.
71 public libraries, 250 service locations, 63 million in-person and virtual visits, 1.9 million active cardholders and 35 million physical loans.
What it does not show. One province.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/sports-culture/arts-culture/public-libraries/facts-and-stats
[16] 2026Measured
Government of Canada. open.canada.ca.
37,972 records of type dataset on 26 October 2026, of 48,175 records in all.
What it does not show. The count changes daily.
https://open.canada.ca/data/api/action/package_search?rows=0&facet.field=%5B%22type%22%5D
[18] 2026Measured
Ville de Montreal. donnees.montreal.ca.
109 garden sites across 16 boroughs, 102 of them named community gardens (dataset updated 1 October 2026).
What it does not show. Includes a few collective gardens and a greenhouse.
[23] 2007Measured
Elections Ontario. results.elections.on.ca.
The assembly's proposal won 1,581,741 votes (36.82 per cent) and carried 5 of 107 districts.
https://results.elections.on.ca/api/report-groups/43/report-outputs/724/pdf/en
[26] 2026Measured
Government of Ontario. ontario.ca.
Work refusals reported in the industrial program: 299 in 2020-21, falling to 155 in 2022-23 and 179 in 2025-26.
What it does not show. Industrial sector only, and counts what was reported, not every refusal.
https://www.ontario.ca/page/industrial-program-sector-trends
[29] 2025Measured
Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada. oic-ci.gc.ca.
202,915 requests government-wide, 83.3 per cent of them to IRCC; 78.04 per cent closed within legislated timelines; 3,626 complaints accepted.
[30] 2025Measured
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. canada.ca.
Excluding IRCC, 33,928 requests, down 27.6 per cent, and 13,740,293 pages processed, up 33.1 per cent.
What it does not show. Excludes IRCC; not the government-wide count.
[32] 2026Measured
Elections Canada. elections.ca.
Dates of every federal general election, including nine from 27 November 2000 to 28 April 2025; official turnout 67.0 per cent in 2019 and 62.6 per cent in 2021.
What it does not show. Official turnout uses registered electors as the denominator.
https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=turn&document=index&lang=e
[33] 2026Measured
Elections Canada. elections.ca.
Official turnout of 69.0 per cent in 2025, the highest since 1993; 55.9 per cent for ages 18 to 24 against 77.6 per cent for ages 65 to 74.
What it does not show. On eligible rather than registered electors, 2025 turnout was 68.0 per cent.
[34] 2026Measured
Statistics Canada. The Daily, 13 January 2026.
Life expectancy at birth of 82.16 years in 2024.
What it does not show. Life expectancy at birth understates the remaining lifespan of someone who has already reached 18.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/260113/dq260113b-eng.htm
[35] 2020Measured
Statistics Canada. Table 43-10-0065-01.
59.3 per cent of people 15 and over were members or participants in at least one group; 19.8 per cent in unions or professional associations; 15.5 per cent in school, neighbourhood, civic or community associations; 69.1 per cent did at least one political activity beyond voting in the past year.
What it does not show. Collected in 2020, during the pandemic; the political-activity rate is a broad composite that includes looking up political information.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=4310006501
[1] 2008On the record
World Bank. World Bank Open Knowledge Repository.
The participatory budget began in 1989; assembly participation grew from 628 people in 1990 to over 6,000 in 1992, peaked at 17,000 in 2002 and stood at 11,500 in 2006.
What it does not show. Counts assembly attendance, not everyone who influenced the budget. Secondary sources quoting larger totals count differently.
[2] 2022On the record
Ville de Montréal. montreal.ca.
About 620 ideas, more than 20,000 voters aged 12 and over, the budget raised from $10 million to $25 million, and 12 winning projects.
What it does not show. The city's own report; it does not measure whether the winning projects were what voters would have ranked first under other rules.
https://montreal.ca/en/articles/montreals-participatory-budget-report-first-edition-2020-2021-8142
[3] 2025On the record
Ville de Montréal. montreal.ca.
More than 880 ideas, more than 28,000 residents voting, and $45 million invested in seven winning projects.
What it does not show. No fourth edition had been called as of October 2026.
https://montreal.ca/en/articles/montreals-participatory-budget-review-third-edition-2024-2025-87348
[4] 2023On the record
Toronto Community Housing Corporation. torontohousing.ca.
Tenants decided on roughly $5 million to $8 million of capital spending a year from 2000 to 2016; the process was suspended for 2017, cut to $800,000 of non-capital spending in 2018, paused in 2020, kept on hold in 2022 and renamed in 2023.
What it does not show. The landlord's account of its own program.
[7] 2017On the record
CBC News. CBC News Toronto.
About 300 tenants in 12 buildings withheld rent from MetCap Living from 1 May 2017 for more than three months; the strike ended with smaller increases, promised repairs and a landlord-funded relief fund.
What it does not show. The outcome is the tenant committee's statement; the landlord did not comment, and the final increase was not published.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/parkdale-rent-strike-ends-1.4245237
[17] 2005On the record
Arrondissement de Ville-Marie, Ville de Montreal. Office de consultation publique de Montreal.
The program began in 1975 in the former City of Montreal; after the 2002 merger the city counted 97 community gardens with about 8,200 plots.
What it does not show. The plot count dates from 2005; no current total is published.
[19] 2026On the record
Ville de Montreal. montreal.ca.
The wait for a plot is currently greater than one year; a full plot costs $15, one per address, borough residents first.
[21] 2005On the record
Elections BC. elections.bc.ca.
The Citizens' Assembly had 160 members drawn at random (a man and a woman from each of 79 districts, plus two First Nations members) and a chair. BC-STV won 57.69 per cent of valid votes against a 60 per cent threshold, and majorities in 77 of 79 districts.
https://elections.bc.ca/docs/rpt/2005-CEOreportRefOnElectoralReform.pdf
[27] 2025On the record
Employment and Social Development Canada. canada.ca.
85 federal officers nationwide prevent and investigate workplace fatalities, injuries, complaints and refusals to work.
What it does not show. No national federal count of refusals is published.