OTTAWA—Justin Trudeau and his team scrambled to deal with an explosive story that derailed his campaign for 24 hours and now throws into question whether his bid for re-election will be successful.By Thursday night, the Trudeau campaign was trying to get back in the air, flying from Winnipeg to Saskatoon.Yet in the hour before TIME magazine published a damning photo Wednesday night of Trudeau in brownface, the Liberal leader was on the phone from Halifax, intent on reaching out to apologize and shore up his support.Omar Alghabra, the Liberal candidate for Mississauga Centre, was in the GTA between two houses, knocking on doors to win votes when the prime minister rang.Alghabra says Trudeau — whom he’d known since 2006 — told him something “very difficult was about to become public. It’s not going to be pleasant,” and he “wanted to be the person to tell me about this and to apologize personally to me for what he’s done 20 years ago.”Trudeau’s staff had just confirmed to the iconic American newsmagazine that the photo they were about to publish was indeed the Canadian prime minister, 19 years ago, then a teacher at a Vancouver private school, his face painted dark and wearing a turban and robes at an Arabian Nights-themed party.Trudeau emerged on his plane about an hour after the story exploded to speak to Canadian reporters, apologize and admit he’d also worn blackface at a high school talent show. By the time it was all over, there’d be photos of a third, separate blackface incident, and a prime minister who admitted he couldn’t recall if there were others.After the first apology, however, Trudeau continued to ring candidates and community leaders to personally apologize to several of his visible minority colleagues, like Alghabra.“It was a shock, a surprise,” says Alghabra, whom Trudeau acknowledged as one of his party’s leaders in promoting diversity and fight ...
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