(LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian analyst praised Conservative Party efforts to end “illiberal, anti-merit” government-run diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
In an October 13 post on X, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre posted a petition to end government DEI programs, which Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy president Mark Milke revealed has led to a deterioration of the Canadian workforce.
Sign here. End DEI. Restore the merit principle. https://t.co/IDanYGgIpv
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) October 13, 2025
“It goes to the basic question of what kind of society you want and what governments should be doing. Governments should not have bureaucracies whose job it is to discriminate based on skin colour, ethnicity, gender,” Milke told the National Post.
Milke explained that Canadians should be hired based on merit, not skin color or by falling into another “minority” group.
“If people lose jobs who are promoting DEI, so be it,” he declared. “There are better ways to earn a living than by discriminating against people based on their unchangeable characteristics.”
“It’s not the job of the government to create all sorts of jobs for the sake of creating jobs at the taxpayers’ expense,” he continued.
“You would focus on providing equality of opportunity, as opposed to saying to someone, ‘You can’t have this job because, according to today’s criteria, you look the wrong way,” Milke declared.
Earlier this month, Poilievre, a longtime advocate against DEI initiatives, encouraged Canadians to sign a petition to end Liberal DEI programs that have cost taxpayers millions.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Canada’s universities, under former Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and now under successor Mark Carney, promised $110 million to fund DEI projects, many of which concern Canadian post-secondary institutions.
Indeed, LifeSiteNews recently reported on Trudeau’s Liberal government spending over $30 million on DEI-affiliated contracts among many federal ministries since January 2019.
That led to an increase in woke ideology creeping into all parts of society. As LifeSiteNews reported recently, the University of British Columbia (UBC) Vancouver campus posted an opening for a research chair position but has essentially barred non-homosexual white men from applying for the job.
Following the lead of the United States, Poilievre has promised if ever elected to power he would scrap government funding of “radical political ideologies” in higher education.
Under U.S. President Donald Trump, public schools and universities were given until the end of February to eliminate their DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs or risk losing federal funding.
More than 30 states have introduced legislation that would eliminate DEI programs from education as part of a broader push against woke ideology spearheaded by Republicans such as Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Conservatives have long criticized DEI and other forms of identity politics for stoking rather than curtailing division. Moreover, many take issue with left-wing ideologies, such as gender ideology, because they contain objective falsehoods such as the denial of biological reality in determining sex.
