Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, left, and Liberal Leader Mark Carney participate in the English-language federal leaders' debate in Montreal on April 17.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

The costed Conservative election platform released this week largely eschews the hyperpolarizing language that had defined Pierre Poilievre until recently. The word “broken” shows up seven times in the 30-page document, but nowhere does the Tory platform apply that descriptor to Canada as a whole, as Mr. Poilievre had been endlessly doing until the federal election campaign began. Rather, the platform refers to “broken” Liberal promises and our “broken” immigration and health care systems. Hard to take issue with that.

As for the term “woke,” it only appears in the party’s Quebec-specific platform, which was initially released in March and is annexed to the overall platform released on Tuesday. It pledges that a Tory government “will put an end to the imposition of the Woke ideology in the federal public service and in the allocation of federal funds for university research.”

That line is oddly tone-deaf, considering the hacksaw that U.S. President Donald Trump has taken to the U.S. government and to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, not to mention his chilling attacks on university independence. Inviting comparisons with Mr. Trump is just about the last thing

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