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Justin Trudeau has apologised after this photo emerged showing him in brownface makeup at an'Arabian Nights'costume party in 2001. — Justin Trudeau has apologised after this photo emerged showing him in brownface makeup at an 'Arabian Nights' costume party in 2001.

During his apology,he also admitted to performing"Day O",a traditional Jamaican song made famous by Harry Belafonte,in brownface during a high school talent show years earlier. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp then published a picture from that performance that was confirmed as authentic by a spokeswoman.

On Thursday morning,local time,more damaging material surfaced. Trudeau’s campaign spokeswoman,Zita Astravas,confirmed that a video posted by GlobalNews,a Canada-based news organisation,showed the Prime Minister in the early 1990s wearing dark make-up and an Afro wig. In the video,he is waving his hands around and sticking out his tongue.

"We can confirm that it is him and it's from the early 1990s,"a Liberal official said of the video without clarifying the circumstances around the video.

Trudeau was in Winnipeg,Manitoba,for a campaign stop on Thursday,and said he was wary of being definitive about how many times he'd worn brown or blackface because he didn't recall the recent pictures that had surfaced.

"I have to recognise that I was blind to the pain that I caused at those times,"he said.

He spent the morning calling"many"Liberal candidates and community leaders to fully apologise for what he did"knowing how racist and hurtful this type of thing was to do,"spokeswoman Eleanore Catenaro said.

Trudeau has championed racial equality and diversity as prime minister over the past four years,and he has three prominent ministers of Indian descent in his cabinet.

A third image has emerged of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau with his face painted.Credit:AP

But it was clear when his main competitor,Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer,called him"unfit to govern"late on Wednesday that it could be a turning point in a very tight election race that now has the two virtually tied.

"It is clearly very damaging at this time and the full impacts will not become clear for a week or so,"said Frank Graves,head of EKOS Research polling company.

"I don't think it will be fatal but time will tell. The Liberals have high ground on the diversity and racism file,and Trudeau needs to unremittingly note how he screwed up... Voters will then decide,"he said.

Many Liberals,some of them minorities,rallied around Trudeau,reflecting the reservoir of goodwill over his past support of diversity.

Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan,a Liberal who is Sikh,said that what Trudeau did was wrong but that the Prime Minister had a record of standing up for minorities. Trudeau named Sajjan Canada's first Sikh defence chief in 2015.

Half of Trudeau's Cabinet is made up of women,four are Sikhs,and his immigration minister is a Somali-born refugee.

Greg Fergus,a Liberal member of Parliament who is black,said there was a lot of confusion and hurt in the black community but noted that the Prime Minister apologised.

Fergus pointed out that it was Trudeau who put Viola Desmond,a black woman who refused to leave the whites-only section of a Canadian movie theater in 1944,on Canada's $10 bill.

"I think the real measure of the man,and I think the thing we need to be talking about,is all the amazing things we have done for diversity,"Fergus said.

Reuters,AP