WorldIdentityCrisisJustin Trudeau has been a liberal icon for years.
But are his days numbered?
By Ian BremmerIt’s been 84 years sInce a fIrst-term
Canadian Prime Minister with a parlia-
mentary majority lost a bid for re- election,
but Justin Trudeau was in a position to
shatter that record even before those pho-
tos hit the Internet. Blackface is a bad look
for any candidate, but it’s especially unbe-
coming for an incumbent who has built his
political brand on inclusion, immigration,
multiculturalism and a liberal global order.
Trudeau now finds himself defend-
ing not just the record of his four years
in office but also his personal sincerity,
all while fending off a Conservative chal-
lenger who is smart, likable, polished
and even younger than he is. How seri-
ously can anyone take his impassioned
speeches about diversity now?
“Actions speak louder than words,”
Trudeau told me, in a follow-up to an ex-
clusive interview with TIME. “I know that
my actions in the past have been hurtful to
people, and for that I’m deeply sorry. Our
government has acted to fight discrimina-
tion and racism consistently over our first
term, and if we earn the right to govern Can-
ada again, we’ll move forward to fight rac-
ism and discrimination in our next term.”
I sat down with Trudeau on Sept. 3
in his Parliament office, 15 days before
TIME published on its website what
would prove to be only the first photo-
graph of the leader of the Liberal Party in
brown- or blackface. That one was taken at
age 29, at a costume party at the Vancou-
ver private school where he was teaching
(see page 34). Within hours two more im-
ages had popped up from high school, and
the Prime Minister was in the midst of a
full-on media storm.
Polls taken in the days afterward
showed scant change in Canadians’
assessment of their Prime Minister, or at
least of the party he leads: the Liberals