TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got his first day out of the spotlight on Saturday after being hammered for images showing him in blackface, which have threatened to derail his re-election campaign.
Trudeau, 47, was in eastern Canada when pictures first emerged on Wednesday showing him in brown makeup at a 2001 “Arabian Nights” party when he was a 29-year-old teacher. He held a hasty press conference on his plane and apologized, ashen-faced, before traveling to other western cities where the scandal dominated questions.
The revelations were followed by two days of uproar, international ridicule, and attacks by the Canadian opposition who called him a hypocrite and demanded he resign. Trudeau apologized repeatedly and begged Canadians for forgiveness, but said he will not step down.
Arriving in Toronto on Friday, home to key ethnic ridings that he needs to win, Trudeau attempted to pivot back to policy issues with an assault rifle ban.
“Hi Mr. Blackface! Nice to meet you,” one woman said to the prime minister as he strolled in Toronto’s Greektown neighborhood.
Canadian public reaction to the images has been mixed and it is too early to say whether or not the scandal will radically shift votes ahead of an Oct. 21 election.
The Liberals have lost a little ground to rival Conservatives, according to the first surveys conducted after the blackface images emerged and published on Saturday. In recent months, the parties have mostly been locked in a statistical tie.
“He wasn’t a KKK sympathizer. It’s not like we discovered youthful anti-Semitic writings,” said Yves Boisvert, a columnist with French-language newspaper La Presse. The story was generally given less prominence by the Quebec media judging by front pages and home pages.