Maybe they learned the strategies from the U.S. unions.  Intercepts Blog has this interesting tidbit about dues-dinging for warchests here:

http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2011/06/22/got-to-pay-your-dues-if-you-want-to-sing-the-blues/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+Intercepts+(Intercepts)

Couldn’t pull up either site, but read the site from ‘not a basher either’ OK.
Maybe Ontario will have protests close the scale of Greece if the Cons get in.  It’s going to continue happening everywhere though as psu’s fight the inevitable.  It would be nice if some real change to benefit Ontario children will come of it

If the NDP drops their bomb of nixing Catholic education in Ontario we will not have to worry about any other education policy plank because that in itself will be a game changer in so many ways.

Also of interest that was found within the NDP’s platform as written in a TorStar piece two weeks ago they plan to “offer elementary schooling for immigrants entirely in their mother-tongue where numbers warrant.”

Who would have thought that the school choice and fb schools issue would be raised up again by the NDP? It’s going to force both the PCs and the Libs. into a very difficult corner, AND it’s going to open up the school choice debate in this province like never before.

Excerpted from article:

“You won’t be surprised to hear that NDP delegates believe the mass media don’t give them fair coverage (obviously that was written before the Star endorsed Layton in the last election). Among its ambitious plans:

• “Acquire, administer and finance our own ‘non-corporate’ program(s), if not our own media, by sharing, cooperating and pooling our collective resources with our present left-of-centre, noncorporate allies . . . and implement a strategic plan to acquire and share better media coverage” (passed in 2002);

• Elementary schooling for immigrants entirely in their mother tongue, where numbers warrant (reaffirmed in 2004);

• Industrial democracy to ensure “direct worker control” and “joint decision-making” in provincially owned corporations (2004);

• Public auto insurance, lest we forget (pledged in 1996 and reaffirmed in 2004);

• A promise to make its resolutions available “for distribution to the general public” (2004);

• A caution that any NDP government “must follow the established fundamental policies” of the party. Any “significant variance” must first be cleared with the party (2004).”

Ms. Dare,

I find that I have to agree with your analysis (and Snobelen’s) of the situation to a certain point.  I would respectfully submit that some of the union leadership still want to make it about education policy.  A few weeks back, someone posted a notice in our staff room with the title:  “McGuinty wants to raise your hydro bill 46%.”  One of the union leaders at our school scribbled over the notice:  “Hudak wants to cut your salary by 52%”.  Now, this was after the Tories presented their plan - nowhere does it talk about cutting public sector wages.  What I find further puzzling is the number ‘52’ - very exact.  If they were pulling a number out of thin air, they would use a number like ‘50’.  I can only assume that union HQ has given them some ‘facts’ based on erroneous numbers and they are spreading them around like the gospel truth.

Furthermore, I would like to say that unlike Snobelen, I would not charge you with teacher bashing.  Not just the sentiments at the end, but all through his article, he perpetuates many of the common misconceptions about teachers in general and their relationship to the union in particular.  OK for the ordinary Joe, but Snobelen was the Minister of Education for Pete’s sake!  He rally ought to know better.  His article simply shows how out of touch he is with teachers - both then and now.

Oh Mr. Sage, I’m in total agreement that the union leadership still want to make it about education policy. If they drone on about the inroads into union power, the people whose eyes haven’t already glazed over will suspect that union officials are more concerned about institutional power than quality education. So of course the union leadership will try to make it about education. You know… the Ontario Conservatives hate teachers and want to deprive kids of much-needed funds and on and on, even though the Conservatives are promising pretty much the same as the Liberals. Actual facts are collateral damage in this battle.

Frankly, I think that Mr. Snobelen was reporting the facts.  I well remember how the teachers behaved when the Conservatives were in power, as my children were in school. 
Yet, years later, it’s shocking to read that teachers will take time off from their jobs to work to get their chosen party elected.  Private sector employees can’t do the same.  The public sector’s sense of entitlement and lust for power at the tax payer’s expense staggers the imagination.  I can better understand why many people are fed up with the whole darned bunch of them…