The javascript == operator should return true when comparing the number 1 to the string '1' -- but perhaps the ng-if expression evaluator does something slightly different... did you try removing the single quotes from the ng-if test? If so, did that make a difference? The other thing to try is to wrap the expression in curly braces (sorry, but i can't remember the syntax.. i always have to look it up).
For more information about what makes a valid angular "expression" and where you can use them, check out the Angular v1 docs site.
