Indo-Canadians, First Nations, or Chinese-Canadians, I dont see the point of trying to make a news out of that as to how many were represented at the meeting. It is simply not a matter of oppression or under-representation, race and language simply do not matter in politics. Jack Layton who cant speak French properly still gets his candidate elected against LPC under Dion in Quebec, that is certainly a lesson for those are playing "with me or against me" game in politics that it simply does not work anymore.

Briony Penn is no doubt a highly profiled LPC in the riding as Dunn is the most prominent BC MP to face the possibility of being defeated, second to David Emerson, and an alliance of GP-LPC like in Central Nova could have made Briony Penn the MP in waiting. Certainly that sort of alliance simply does not exist in the West. And if LPC places third next election in this riding with a highly regarded environmental activist as its candidate, that will tell a lot about people's perception of the credibility LPC has on Kyoto.

FHK, I don't know where you're getting your facts from. Jack Layton's French is at least as good as that of any other Anglo politician in Canada in recent times. He has always had a large personal approval rating in his native Quebec, and as of last fall's Outremont byelection that has begun to translate into practical results.

Brionny Penn, in my opinion, is a typical anti-union "green" who sees labour as a bigger threat to the environment that the business leaders who employ them and make the big decisions on production methods and abatement measures. It's a social class thing, straight out of Victorian times.

FHK wrote " ... as Dunn is the most prominent BC MP to face the possibility of being defeated, second to David Emerson ..."

Oh please, please tell me you meant "Lunn".

While the percentage may have risen since then, people who identify as being of South Asian origin made up 2.2% of the riding's population in 2001 according to the census figures cited. So maybe 1.875% of the meeting's attendees being Indo-Canadian isn't a very impressive number, but it's not terrible. If the Dodds' car had broken down, now that would've been embarrassing.

They should've called up Dave Basi or Jag Dhanowa to boost the attendance. Although I wouldn't be surprised if they've lost Basi's phone number, and I could understand if Dhanowa didn't feel like returning their calls.