Canada's Trudeau campaigns after blackface images deliver blow to polling numbers

[applegrove]

Canada's Trudeau campaigns after blackface images deliver blow to polling numbers

BY REUTERS

https://ottawacitizen.com/pmn/elections-pmn/canadas-trudeau-campaigns-after-blackface-images-deliver-blow-to-polling-numbers/wcm/d60f2c6c-3120-4d63-a34b-75237c3b75a6/amp?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true

"SNIP......

Before the blackface scandal, public opinion surveys strongly suggested Trudeau’s Liberals would beat the opposition Conservatives led by Andrew Scheer.

But Trudeau’s campaign was shaken on Wednesday when Time magazine published a picture of him in brown makeup at a 2001 “Arabian Nights” party when he was a 29-year-old teacher. Two other images and a video of him in blackface later emerged.

The polls have now shifted and the Liberals are looking particularly vulnerable in Ontario, said pollster Frank Graves of EKOS Research, who said he would release his exact survey figures later this week.

The day before the pictures emerged, “the Liberals were at or very close to a majority” in the House of Commons, Graves said. “That’s completely turned around and maybe the Conservatives are in majority range now.”

.......SNIP"

[VarryOn]

1. I cant believe anyone actually believes Trudeau is a racist!

And show me someone genuinely offended...someone brown or black-skinned. Not a conservative saying they are or a third party feigning offense on behalf of someone.

Everyone agrees it was dumb for him to do, but no one takes him for being racist.

[applegrove]

2. Still it is serious. I hope it scars canadians enough that nobody does this again.

I was at a party in the early 1990s and some people were in blackface. I didn't expect it of them. Then i didn't know them well. It is white privilege to not know better at the time. I kept my mouth shut. That is privilege too.

[VarryOn]

3. I dont doubt it's serious...

After all, it may cost him his job.

I was in a frat in college IN THE SOUTH and not once did I ever see someone in blackface at a party or otherwise. And it absolutely never occurred to me to do blackface or anything even remote.

But, there's no way he's a racist, he's apologized a d that should be enough. He seems to be a good guy, and the world needs him as a leader.

[applegrove]

4. Oh i hope he wins. He's not a racist. He made an african refugee Minister of Immigration.

4 years ago. He 's a good egg. I just hope canadians vote smart and vote for him. He acknowleges white privilege. We all do now. Maybe this will be a good learning experience. I like the people who say we've all done something bad when younger. Or the guy on the news tonight who said "i know people who have done something racist and i know people who are racist and they are not the same thing". But like anything really bad it should hurt for a bit.

[Saviolo]

5. Some people are genuinely upset about it.

There are plenty of people for whom this just underlines the generally casually racist society that we live in, yes even in Canada. Anyone telling you that there's not a racism problem in Canada is either ignorant or lying. It certainly takes a slightly different form here than it does in the US (though we've also had POC killed by police, see Jermaine Carby, Sammy Yatim, Andrew Loku, and Abdirahman Abdi), but it's still a problem here. For years here in Toronto it was the incredibly racist "carding" practice, where POC were overwhelmingly targeted.

Oppressed communities rightly see the leader of their country in blackface as a slap to their face. Don't get me wrong, I think that Scheer's on-purpose racism from today is a far bigger problem than Trudeau's casual racism almost 20 years ago, but it's not nothing. And Trudeau has made strides during his administration to increase diversity in the cabinet, but he's also made huge policy missteps, mostly relating to First Nations peoples.

And yes, there are definitely some POC communities that are genuinely upset by it. Here is Desmond Cole, columnist, podcaster, and leftist political activist:

Link to tweet

?s=20

@DesmondCole
I'm not voting for the blackface PM Justin Trudeau to keep Conservatives out of power. We obviously have bigger issues of racism to deal with in Canada, no matter who wins. Please watch and share
https://t.co/8AkOidwzCu?amp=1