35% rise in early voting for Canadian parliamentary election

Early voting has begun in the Canadian general election, the BBC reports.  Early turnout jumped 35% from 2008 (2 million compared to 1.5 in 2008).

As we have found in the past, the heaviest early voting days were Friday and Monday, not Saturday.  Finding other information on voter turnout is a bit frustrating; I’ve been searching for the past 15 minutes to find out how many ballots are cast by mail and for historical data on voter turnout without success.

I finally found some comparative figures at the BC Elections Unit, including this very interesting spreadsheet comparing the costs of administering elections on a per-ballot basis.  Not much else to speak of.  Looks like voter lists are only available to registered candidates and parties.