HALIFAX—Less than 24 hours after a photo showing Justin Trudeau in brownface rocked the federal election and began drawing national backlash, Nova Scotia’s premier says he believes in the Liberal leader’s “sincerity.”

On Wednesday night, a Time magazine news story and a photo was released showing Trudeau, then a teacher, wearing brownface makeup and a turban at a 2001 private school party — an act he said he now recognizes was “racist.”

“I regret it deeply,” Trudeau said at an unscheduled news conference on his plane on a Halifax tarmac, after stopping into Truro, N.S., for a rally.

“It’s something I shouldn’t have done, many years ago, and I recognize that I shouldn’t have done it.”

On Thursday, Premier Stephen McNeil released a statement about the incident to Star Halifax.

“I think the prime minister acknowledged that it was wrong. The prime minister apologized to the country and asked for forgiveness and Canadians will decide on the sincerity of his apology and decide to forgive him or not,” the emailed statement says.

“I believed in his sincerity and his apology and asking for forgiveness.”

The brownface incident happened at an “Arabian Nights” themed party hosted by West Point Grey Academy in Vancouver, where Trudeau, then 29, was a teacher.

However, the 2001 photo is not an isolated incident. The video posted by Global News on Thursday shows a brief clip of Trudeau in blackface, wearing a white T-shirt, sticking his tongue out.

Liberal party spokesperson Zita Astravas confirmed to the Star that it’s Trudeau in the video, which she said dates from the early 1990s.

During Wednesday night’s press conference, Trudeau admitted that it wasn’t the first time he had dressed in brownface. “When I was in high school I dressed up at a talent show and sang ‘Day-O,’ ” Trudeau said, adding quickly, “and put makeup on.”

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With files from Taryn Grant

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