When the NDP governed in the late 1990s, the party made a big deal of having three ministers of South Asian ancestry: Ujjal Dosanjh, Moe Sihota, and Harry Lali. This was taken as a sign that it embraced diversity. But when it came to the senior ranks of the bureaucracy, it was pretty monochromatic. One senior civil servant in that era, Suresh Kurl, even documented how few people of colour were working for the government. The front of the house looked diverse, but the corridors of government power were still very, very white.