By Moira Warburton
TORONTO, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister JustinTrudeau got his first day out of the spotlight on Saturday afterbeing hammered for images showing him in blackface, which havethreatened to derail his re-election campaign.Trudeau, 47, was in eastern Canada when pictures firstemerged on Wednesday showing him in brown makeup at a 2001"Arabian Nights" party when he was a 29-year-old teacher. Heheld a hasty press conference on his plane and apologized,ashen-faced, before travelling to other western cities where thescandal dominated questions.
The revelations were followed by two days of uproar,international ridicule and attacks by the Canadian oppositionwho called him a hypocrite and demanded he resign. Trudeauapologized repeatedly and begged Canadians for forgiveness, butsaid he will not step down.
Arriving in Toronto on Friday, home to key ethnic ridingsthat he needs to win, Trudeau attempted to pivot back to policyissues with an assault rifle ban."Hi Mr. Blackface! Nice to meet you," one woman said to theprime minister as he strolled in Toronto's Greektownneighbourhood.
Canadian public reaction to the images has been mixed and itwas too early to say whether the scandal will shift votes aheadof an Oct. 21 election. Trudeau's Liberals were tied in pollswith the opposition Conservatives before the scandal erupted.
"He wasn't a KKK sympathizer. It's not like we discoveredyouthful anti-Semitic writings," said Yves Boisvert, a columnistwith French-language newspaper La Presse. The story wasgenerally given less prominence by the Quebec media judging byfront pages and home pages.Many Canadians said they were disappointed but not surprisedby the images.
"It is demeaning. The colour of our skin is not a costumeprop," said Samya Hasan, executive director for theToronto-based Council for Agencies Serving South Asians, addingshe was unsurprised because despite Trudeau's reputation as avocal progressive, he is still "a privileged white person."
Trudeau, whose father was the architect of Canada'smulticulturalism system, acknowledged that growing up as thewhite son of a former prime minister left him with "a massiveblind spot."
Pollster David Coletto of Abacus Data said the biggest riskto the Liberals was low voter turnout among their supporters.
"They were already, in our data, showing that they were lessmotivated than Conservatives ... there is certainly the chancethat this further de-motivates those Liberals and makes themless likely to want to actually cast a ballot," he said.
BLOW TO CANADA'S BRAND
Trudeau returned to Ottawa on Friday and goes back on thecampaign trail on Sunday afternoon."The down day gives the party, his campaign team and ofcourse himself, the capacity and time to think about what's goneon and think about ... to what degree they can regain control oftheir campaign," said Allan Tupper, a University of BritishColumbia political science professor.
Several Liberal cabinet members came out in support ofTrudeau including Harjit Sajjan, Canada's first Sikh defenceminister, who said the photos "do not represent the person he isnow." Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, one of the mostprominent members of the Liberal cabinet, said she was "troubledand disappointed" but that she accepted Trudeau's apology andhad full confidence in him as party leader.
Trudeau introduced a gender-balanced cabinet when he tookoffice in 2015 and appointed several minorities to top cabinetpositions, including the defence, immigration and naturalresources portfolios.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has clashed with Trudeau inthe past, said he was "surprised by the number of times" Trudeauhad dressed in blackface, while late night comedians excoriatedthe prime minister.
Famously declaring that "Canada is back" when he waselected, Trudeau won international plaudits for his focus onfeminism, the environment and the need for multilateralorganizations.
Foreign diplomats have said his stance was important at atime when populism is on the rise and the United States seemsintent on shrinking its global ambitions. Canada is bidding fora seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2021.
"It's embarrassing," Ladonna James, a Toronto resident, saidof the images. "It's a real blow to the Canadian brand."(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Moira Warburton in Toronto,Kelsey Johnson in Ottawa; Editing by Daniel Wallis)