Lost in the local newspapers’ laudatory coverage of the latest provincial budget was a new poll that puts the BC NDP level with the BC Liberals at 40% support among decided voters. It’s the highest the NDP has been in the polls since 1996; a stunning return for a party that was almost annihilated at the last election.

What is striking about the poll is a large disparity between male and female voters. About 50% of men favour the Liberals, with about 30% opposing. Among women, almost the exact opposite is the case. It’s women, to put it simply, who are bringing the New Democrats back from the dead.

Of course, the pundits trot out the usual explanation; women are concerned about ‘soft’ NDP-ish issues, like health care and social programs, while men are focused on Liberal guy stuff like the economy. This pat explanation always struck me as a bit lame, and I’m convinced there’s something more underlying the recent poll results.

I think the numbers can partly be accounted for by the fact that the sectors of society that are most often on the receiving end of the Campbell government's more belligerent actions tend to be female-dominated. One example is hospital workers. Laying off unionized health support workers and then hiring them back at half the rate of pay in contracted-out arrangements was something we’re supposed to see as good management. But we know by now that when it comes to watching your tax dollars, this is a government that picks its spots.

A Prince George BC Liberal party supporter gets a $400,000 debt written off by the government. The provincial Auditor General investigates incidents wherein fish farm operators who have contributed to the BC Liberal party have had government penalties and back rent written off. The boys club of a construction industry--the same guys who helped bring us the leaky condo crisis--are in line for multi-millions in Olympic construction contracts. Oh, by the way, it appears that Dick Pound, the former Vice President of the International Olympic Committee, has accused Gordon Campbell of "hijacking" the process by which the CEO of the 2010 Olympic organizing committee is selected. Campbell made sure that an associate of his of got the job. I guess he needs one of his own boys in place when it comes to handing out all that public money. Is it a coincidence that the BC Liberals draw their political fixers and bagmen from the same sleazy ranks as the scandal-plagued federal Liberal party?

Think about all of this, and use it as context for the Liberal assertion that pushing down health care workers' wages has to do with sound business practice.

“All they do is clean,” the Liberals will tell you of the hospital workers. No need to pay a unionized wage for that. But I can say from regrettably extensive first-hand observation that they do a hell of a lot more than just clean. Much of the day-to-day (or hour-to-hour) care of patients, especially those in long-term wards, is conducted by support workers. They're the ones that tend to the feeding, hygiene and even the spirits of many of the patients, and if you think this is an 'anyone can do it' kind of job, try it yourself some time. Far from being a case of sound management, it's simply part of a short-term plan to help Finance Minister Gary Collins parade a pre-election, headline-grabbing ‘balanced’ budget, a feat that could have been accomplished with relative ease had Collins not jumped the gun with an extravagant and premature tax cut on the heels of taking office.

Another example is the public vilification of the ferry workers. Again, the "all they do is cook/clean" argument comes up. That kind of slag is obviously not aimed the guys on the lower deck who are directing your car, but at the largely female staff in the passenger areas. Funny that you rarely hear that all a teamster does is lift boxes. But then the teamsters are mostly guys, and they would likely fight back hard. This, unexpectedly, is also what the ferry workers did. But not before they were subjected to a level of vitriol like something out of Salem Massachusetts, circa 1692. How much of the derision they receive was made a little sharper by the fact that their leader is a woman? The local papers, sneering as ever, made a special point of letting the public know that she was once one of the rank-and-file table-clearing wenches. Doesn't the bitch know her place? I wonder how many women sat quietly in front of the TV set during that dispute, maybe not particularly sympathetic to the union, but recognizing a contemptuous and nasty tone in how its members were being portrayed.

There is something overbearing about this government; a pushy, bullying smugness embodied by Gordon Campbell himself. The only time anyone has every really liked this guy, ironically, is when he appeared humbled and penitent in the wake of his drunk driving conviction. Now he's back to his old prick self, pushing an agenda that dishes out goodies to his cronies and platitudes about making 'tough choices' to everyone else. It's possible, even likely, that the poll numbers--and perhaps the gender disparity they reveal--will change over the next little while. For now, though, it appears that it's the men in this province who are being seduced by the soft stuff, Olympic promises and the like, while the women are the ones who recognize the hard realities of a society that leans on them for some of its dirtiest jobs, and then looks to them first when the belt-tightening begins.