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“When I was in high school I dressed up at a talent show and sang Day O with make-up on,” Trudeau said.

“I’m more enthusiastic about costumes than is sometimes appropriate,” he added, with a nod to his trip to India.

Asked if he would resign as many American politicians have been forced to do for similar incidents, Trudeau danced around the issue.

“I take responsibility for my decision to do that,” he said. “It’s something that I didn’t think was racist at the time but now I recognize it was something racist to do.”

Bottom line: Trudeau isn’t resigning over this even though he would demand that any other party fire any candidate caught in the same situation. Asked what taking responsibility means for him given that others would be fired over this, Trudeau said it means it’s time for “important conversations.”

He said he didn’t know it was racist to appear in black face in 2001 but does now. I’m pretty sure I had this figured out by 2001 and Trudeau and I are the same age.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, a man who has faced a tough political road because he does wear a turban on a daily basis, learned of the photo as he held a town hall north of Toronto. Singh said that Trudeau’s actions are insulting.

“We see one Mr. Trudeau in public and I’ll be honest with you, he seems really nice, very friendly, very warm in public, but behind closed doors he seems like he’s a different Mr. Trudeau,” Singh said.

Singh said he’s dealt with racism his whole life and that includes feelings that this sort of thing is OK, or was OK. Let’s be honest, if any other candidate in any other party was found to have a photo like this, they would have been fired, dropped as a candidate and pushed out of politics.