Actually Malkin you’d be wrong about your opinion out here in BC.  There are many non educators in this province who sided with the teachers point of view during our last job action…which lasted for 4 months, delayed the school year by 3 weeks, and cancelled report cards for our students.  Was it worth it?  Teachers actually lost money through their efforts and the strike fund for the BCTF dried up.  After 4 months of screaming against the government, they ended up accepting the same deal which was laid out to them one month into their strike action…something that was a bitter pill for many to swallow.  There were also break away groups of teachers who were very vocal against the job action, and just wanted to get back into the classroom and do their job.  It will be curious to see if Jim Iker is re-elected next year to head the BCTF once again.  Furthermore, this time around, public opinion swayed further away from the BCTF than ever before.  It will be interesting times for Ontario, something that those of us out here on the Left Coast are all too familiar with.

In almost any dispute between teachers and government about 2/3 of voters support the teachers.

About 1/3 of the public generally supports conservative positions on education.

That statistic may have been accurate “back in the day”, but it certainly is not the case today.  Even here in BC, where labour and leftist ideals seem to reign supreme, support for the BCTF and its members was about 50% this time around. It started off stronger, but as it dragged on, public support fell off sharply, especially when teachers walked out and left 12th graders in the lurch 2 weeks before their graduation, leaving the question of final exams and grad celebrations up in the air.  And it fell even further when our school year was delayed by their job action.  The general public viewpoint is now more moderate, supporting the teachers in general, but many people no longer support pay hikes or benefit packages for teaches.  Especially given the current economic climate, most members of the general public view the teaching profession as being satisfactorily, or even better paid, than other people. 

It will be very interesting to see what happens in Ontario.  Especially when Premier Wynne promised the teacher unions the moon and the stars and the rain while campaigning, and as soon as she got into office, she proclaimed no more money for education.  We shall see…