So Gordon Campbell and his Liberal re-election machine want to reach out to B.C's ethnic communities.

After more than three years in office and a shellacking in the recent Surrey-Panorama Ridge byelection, one can only say it's about time.

Gordon Campbell

More critical is the "ignore them we know better" part they have to get rid off.

The underlying story of the Surrey-Panorama Ridge byelection is one of a government that did not listen to a constituency of a predominantly ethnic riding.

In 2001, the same riding elected Gulzar Cheema as the Liberals all but wiped out the NDP, which had ruled B.C. the previous decade.

Cheema forced the byelection to run--unsuccessfully--in the June federal election.

This time around the Liberals, despite strident opposition from party stalwarts representing the area decided to run Mary Polak, the former chairperson of the Surrey schoolboard best known for her taxpayer funded fight to stop books featuring same-sex couples from being used in schools.

That was a huge mistake.

The Surrey-Panorama Ridge picture is one where close to 50 percent of the population don't have English as the mother tongue. Of that more than sixty per cent of the area speak Punjabi.

All the door knocking and phone calls by high profile cabinet ministers could only muster less than 10 per cent of the Indo-Canadian vote paving the way for the NDP's Jagrup Brar to sweep the riding with 53 percent of the vote.

Polak got just 33 percent compared to Cheema who won the riding in 2001 with almost 60 per cent of the vote.

Bottom line, Brar had a natural constituency--the same one that delivered victory in the area for the Liberals three years ago.

Interestingly enough the NDP ran Bruce Ralston when it got trounced in 2001.

The Left, many in the media and the NDP quickly pounced on the victory saying it's a message that fed-up British Columbians wanted to deliver to Campbell.

They claimed that the cuts delivered by the Liberals have alienated the very people who brought them into office.

The real truth is probably closer to the fact that the Liberals may have won or at least not have been beaten so badly if they had run an Indo-Canadian candidate.

It's a shame that very few will call it like it is or only hint at the ethnic voting factor in Surrey-Panorama Ridge.

The Liberals took an insane gamble with Polak and lost.

This byelection, contrary to the NDP boast, was no referendum of Campbell's government.

It was an ethnic showdown.

Surrey-Panorama Ridge is however a sharp reminder to the Liberals that if they continue to ignore ethnic communities, they do so at their peril.

The Asian Pacific Post