On Thursday, Global News put out a video showing Trudeau again in dark make-up, ripped jeans and a T-shirt, making faces and sticking his tongue out. It was not immediately clear exactly when that video was from.

“We can confirm that it is him and it’s from the early 1990s,” a Liberal official said.

The prime minister said he was “wary” of ruling out the existence of even more such images because he could not remember those that had already come to light.

Answering questions in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Thursday, Trudeau said that his privilege as the white son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau had come with a “blind spot”.

“I come from a place of privilege and I have endeavoured in my life to put the advantages and opportunities I’ve been given to serve this country, to fight for people’s rights,” he said.

Five other times Justin Trudeau made bad headlines

“I’ve let a lot of people down … and I stand here today to reflect on that and to ask forgiveness.”

Earlier on Thursday, Trudeau held a conference call for all 338 Liberal candidates in the coming polls.

“The prime minister expressed his apology and regret and said this happened 20 years ago,” one Liberal on the call said. “He said this is the moment for us to continue to work together to understand the pain of people who are on the receiving end of racism and stereotypes.”

Even before the brownface scandal, the race going into the October 21 vote was tight. But the release of the bombshell images could be a turning point, in part because Liberals have traditionally attracted support from immigrant communities.

“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.

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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.

Greg Fergus, a black Liberal legislator from Quebec, said Trudeau had called him before the story broke to apologise.

“I don’t believe that anybody has ever lived their lives without making errors,” Fergus told reporters in Ottawa, saying Canadians should focus on “all the amazing things we have done for diversity”.

Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer, Trudeau’s main rival, said that the video was proof that the prime minister had lied during his apology on Wednesday because he only mentioned having dressed in brown face twice.

“He did something that was racist and he lied about the extent of such activities,” Scheer told reporters in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec.

Scheer also acknowledged the Conservatives had leaked the video to Global News.

Trudeau responds to groping claim, doesn’t recall ‘negative interactions’

Trudeau has seen his once sky-high popularity hurt by a series of missteps, including a ruling last month by a top watchdog that he had breached ethics rules by pressuring the former justice minister to ensure a major construction firm avoid a corruption trial.

On Wednesday, Trudeau brushed off suggestions he might quit.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse