I don't know the motivations of specific passages in the Indo-Pacific strategy.
What I can say in terms of dealing with ASEAN states that are across a broad spectrum of regime types—that is democracy, hybrid regime and authoritarian regime—is that one strategy for dealing with this kind of landscape that is so diverse is to be relatively open and pragmatic when dealing with different types of government. It may be in the interest of actors outside of ASEAN and Southeast Asia, such as Canada or others, to keep an open mind about other governments that are not full democracies. Singapore, for example, is not by any means a liberal democracy, but it is a country where the institutions work very well, development has really performed, and the government, for the most part, has significant legitimacy.
Simply defining in or out countries that are or are not democracies may not serve Canada's interests in the best way. At the same time, I think it is important to be aware that liberal democratic rights are still extremely important in many countries in Southeast Asia deep down at the local level for civil society groups, villagers or urban citizens. It is important to be aware of those movements for greater political rights in countries where there is significant repression.