Merit rather than identity based appointments are not a priority of the Liberal Party of Canada.

If they were, Spaceman Garneau would have been chosen over Space Cadet Trudeau as party leader in 2013.

One reason equality of outcome surpasses equality of opportunity in Liberal thinking is because it just seems "nicer" and more "liberal".

Another is a cynical political calculation.  There are more votes, a lot more votes, in identity appointments than in merit appointments.  People can see and the shallow and tribal among us will applaud identity appointments whereas merit appointments except where there are extreme disparities between candidates are harder to recognize and for many seem somehow uncomfortably elitist.

And Liberals practice their storied cognitive dissonance to explain this.  They stand for both merit and representation, growth and environment, security and freedom, etc. and there is no a conflict between such competing demands nor a need to make hard choices.