The PM is claiming to be consistently frank and open with Canadians about his failings while refusing to answer the most basic questions about them

BURNABY, B.C. — On Sunday, as the Liberal campaign headed back out on the road with post-blackface Justin Trudeau, the key question was: How much would people care? An Abacus Data poll released Monday suggested relatively good news for Team Trudeau: Just 24 per cent of respondents chose to describe themselves as “truly offended,” while 34 per cent said they were unimpressed but could live with the apology, and fully 42 per cent said they weren’t much bothered at all.

Just six per cent of Liberal-intended voters and 16 per cent of NDP-intended voters said they were “truly offended,” and for that matter only 20 per cent of visible-minority respondents.

Distroscale

If anything rational can explain Trudeau’s odd performance at a Monday-morning press conference in Hamilton, Ont., perhaps it’s relief at those findings. Lucas Meyer, a radio reporter for Newstalk 1010 in Toronto, asked the PM a neat question about the video showing him capering around in blackface, apparently with something substantial shoved down the front of his trousers — namely, “what exactly was that costume?”

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“I am continuing to be open with Canadians about the mistake I made,” Trudeau responded. “This is something that I take responsibility for. This is something that I should have known better, but didn’t. I will continue to work every day to fight racism, to fight discrimination, to fight intolerance in this country.”

Meyer tried again: “With all due respect, Prime Minister, that wasn’t even close to answering the question. What was that costume?”

“I have been open with Canadians, and I will continue to be open with Canadians,” Trudeau replied, eliciting various noises indicating astonishment from the assembled journalists. “I will continue to fight racism and intolerance every day.”

To be fair, it is by no means unusual to see Canadian politicians answer questions with talking points so ludicrous, counterfactual or shameless that you wonder how they can look their loved ones in the eye. My mind immediately turned to Conservative MP Paul Calandra’s famous question period performance, five years ago to the day from Trudeau’s Hamilton press conference: NDP leader Thomas Mulcair asked prime minister Stephen Harper to “confirm that the 30-day Canadian commitment in Iraq will indeed end on Oct. 4”; Calandra, Harper’s parliamentary secretary, stood and complained that “there is a great deal of confusion with respect to the NDP position on Israel.”

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Calandra, who later apologized, was conducting routine partisan business — albeit in unusually obnoxious fashion. Trudeau was just a few days into a debacle that, no matter what the polls say now, had shocked and severely rattled his campaign. The strategy had been clear, and it seemed like a pretty solid one: Express mortification, exhibit contrition, explain your past ignorance and how you came to lose it. Now here he was batting away a simple, specific question with a downright insulting talking point — essentially poking Canadians who were genuinely offended in the eye, and risking the ire of those who had accepted his apology.

If an honest answer would have been problematic, “I don’t remember” or “it wasn’t a costume, I was just being a goof,” would have worked better. Just about anything would have been better than claiming to be consistently frank and open with Canadians while failing to answer what could be the simplest question he’ll get asked on the whole campaign.

On Tuesday in Burnaby, B.C., Trudeau was asked how he can say he’s being frank and open with Canadians when all he’ll say about the topic at hand is that he’s being frank and open with Canadians.

It’s a reminder of what a risky candidate Trudeau can still be

“I understand the question about the costume,” he replied. “But let me make it very, very clear. There is no situation in which that would be appropriate. The racist history of blackface makes it wrong in any situation in any circumstance. I did not know that then and I should have. And I take responsibility for that.”

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This at least acknowledged the existence of the question he was refusing to answer. Nevertheless, the mystery of the costume remains.

Ultimately, it may go down as a subplot in an election story that might not end up mattering that much to the outcome. But for a Liberal government in waiting, it remains awkward. Perhaps most notably, Trudeau pledges to redouble his efforts to tackle racism and intolerance in light of his own past failings, but his journey of self-discovery and atonement hasn’t brought him any closer to promising federal intervention in the court challenges against Quebec’s Bill 21 — a blatant government attack on minority rights.

It’s also a reminder of what a risky candidate Trudeau can still be. Let him speak his mind and you can wind up in some crazy places. Insist he stick to his talking points, though, and he can wind up looking just as silly. The Liberals have to hope an older, wiser Trudeau, rightly knocked down a few pegs, can combine his charisma, confidence and stage presence with a lighter touch and a lot more self-awareness, and reformulate a much more thoughtful and less divisive prime minister.