Blackface damages Trudeau at polls as he vows lower taxes, cellphone costs

Blackface scandal damages Trudeau at polls as he vows lower taxes, cellphone costs
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday worked to start putting last week’s blackface scandal behind him and focused on policies he said he’d pursue if re-elected, including lower cellphone costs and a middle-class tax cut, according to reports. However, the scandal may have torpedoed his lead in the polls.

Trudeau apologized several times for the multiple images that emerged last week showing him in blackface at different parties and events while he was in his teens and 20s. But pollster Frank Graves of EKOS Research told Reuters that polls have shifted and the gap between his campaign and the opposition Conservatives has narrowed. Graves said he will release the poll numbers later this week, but told the news outlet that Trudeau’s lead has “evaporated almost overnight.”