The Grand Taj is a business, for crying out loud. A good time is always had by all, as well as a wonderful selection of incredible food, and fabulous entertainment. If invited (and supplied with a free ticket from certain political parties which will not receive my vote) I would willingly cancel any previous plans to attend. I'm not surprised that "no one" who has ever been there would complain about "who" they allow to rent the Grand Taj banquet hall. They may never be allowed to come back.

I think it goes to show that those who are motivated, those willing to take risks and bear expenses, are the ones who are going to be doing well in the game of competitive politics. Right now, donations from individuals and labour are lower in real terms than in previous decades. So the willingness of immigrant groups, Indo-Canadians being just one example, to pay up for the privilege of getting involved is going to mean that they are doing well in politics while others are feeling left out. But that has always been the price of apathy.

For the NDP in particular, the reluctance of a large mass of generally left-leaning liberals and social democrats to really contribute substantial monies to the party is a testament to the serious political futility of the Harcourt years. Mike Harcourt represented everything that was best about the Vancouver professional-class social democrats, but as Premier of BC his Government was a complete political failure, and that was baldy apparent just a year after he came to office when voters rejected the Charlottetown Accord 2:1. After the Harcourt meltdown, followed by the Glen Clark meltdown, followed by the Ujjal Dosanjh evaporation, followed last year by the Dosanjh Double-Cross ... well, you know, ... it's just a wee bit difficult to get people who would be the natural market for another social democratic campaign to believe that the time has come to spend good money after bad.

Budd: Which is exactly why hundreds of them are spending hundreds of dollars to eat with the guy?

My friends in the Indo-Canadian community tell me that Sukh Dhaliwal is a major political force in Surrey politics. It will be interesting to see how many people attend his event. In the last election he came close to beating three term MP Gurmant Grewal

This event will sell out. How the tickets are paid for remains to be seen.
Sukh Dhaliwal has a tireless drive and is seen as the force to be reckoned with in Surrey.
I was at a BBQ at his house with resigned Citizenship and Immigration Minister Judy S when she was in BC for the Kelowna cabinet. There was 1000 people there.
Impressive.

chelsea, maybe I am not getting your point. But it's obvious, though not quite stated, that the hundreds who bought tickets to the Lali fundraiser where almost entirely from the Indo-Canadian community. Nothing wrong there, ... my point is simply that others, ... Okay, whites whose families have been in Canada for a couple of generations, ... have stopped buying NDP tickets because they cannot stand being put through the wringer of political futility one more time. They have been there and done that in the 1990s, and that was with Mike Harcourt at the wheel, the man who was sold to them all as the professional, the Peter Lougheed of BC, who was going to civilize and modernize our politics. And it all lasted about 30 seconds before disintegrating into another round of idiotic beer-parlour mud-wrestling.

My local constituency is pretty white, pretty anglo, and has sold a hundred tickets for dinner with Dave Barrett. People are more than willing to go another round, because really, there isn't a lot of choice, is there?

I live in the newton north delta riding and i know for a fact that there have been multiple political party at the Grand Taj Banquet Hall. They weren't all liberal and NDP, there have also been Conservative partys. There have been numerous members of parliament at this hall and they were all from different partys. A hall can not turn down a party just because its a political party its owner does not believe in. And also there are 3 partners so how do you know that 1 of them is not a liberal and the other a NDP and the third a conservative. There have also been many members of parliament from India here as well The Grand Taj is a well known and great hall. The incredible food, and fabulous entertainment makes the Grand Taj a great place for any kind of party no matter wether its political or not.