Obama tweeted that he was “proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President," calling his Canadian counterpart "a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change."
I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President. He's a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 16, 2019
Obama's support comes as Trudeau runs a competitive race against Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and in the aftermath of Trudeau's recent blackface controversy, which caused a wave of indignation. Last month, Time magazine surfaced photos of Trudeau wearing brownface when he was a schoolteacher in 2001. In his apology, Trudeau admitted he had put on dark makeup when he was in high school as part of a talent show in which he sang the traditional Jamaican folk song "Day-O."
He later admitted that he did not know how many times he had put on brown makeup, adding that "the fact is I didn't understand how hurtful this is to people who live with discrimination every day."
