What would Poilievre actually do about the DEI initiatives he despises?

Pierre Poilievre doesn't like to be characterized that way, but some of his policies are dangerously close to those of Donald Trump. One example is his crusade against DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies in government contracts and grant-giving.

DEI initiatives are meant to address systemic inequalities and racism in government dealings, and they were a particular focus of the Trudeau government, which even set up a DEI ministry to deal with such matters (a ministry that Mark Carney has since removed, astutely taking out in the process one of Poilievre's major debate points).

The Conservatives, on the other hand, airily dismiss such equity concerns as "woke ideology" and "woke culture", in the universal language after all those opposed to dealing with inequities and inequalities, and argue that such mandates wrongly prioritize race or gender over merit. Their election platform talks about a "woke criminal justice agenda" and a "woke agenda on spending", and Poilievre regularly says in his campaign speeches that "we need to reverse that, get back to Canadian values" (by which he presumably means white Canadian values or, more specifically, Conservative values). This plays very well with some segments of his core support, however un-Canadian it may actually be.

When pressed, Poilievre seems unable or unwilling to elaborate on exactly how he would deal with all this "woke" nonsense - presumably, he doesn't actually know - but we have seen how America has been dealing with it in Donald Trump's presidential orders and the rapacious work of Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

I'm not saying that Poilievre would necessarily institute such a draconian crusade as has been occurring south of the border (although, with the precedent set, that is a possibility). But, like a dangerous iceberg hidden beneath the surface, this is just one of the many matters on which I don't trust Poilievre, a potential atrocity lurking behind relatively innocuous and reasonable-sounding words.