Does the Brownface Scandal Help the NDP?

Do you remember when in 2011 Jack Layton led the New Democratic Party to the Official Opposition in Ottawa? What stuck out? For me, it was the image of Jack looking strong.

While researching for this post, I came across this image of Jagmeet Singh doing a similar pose. Can this be accidental? I think not.

My concern, as always, is how things come about. There are no accidents here, with regards the (now infamous) scandal of Trudeau being pictured as Aladdin at an Arabian Nights gala in Vancouver in 2001. You might have wondered, as I did, that Time Magazine should have been the organization to first publish it. Why didn’t a Canadian outlet get there first?

And then, the penny dropped, as it always does eventually… brownface, when blackface would have been more controversial. A-ha!

If you mock one of your opponents, 18 years before you face them in an election, you will be seen as racist. That can only reflect well on that opponent…