OTTAWA/TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may be renowned internationally for his youthful persona and social media savvy, but even before the embarrassment of his recent blackface makeup scandal there were concerns about the support he needs from younger voters to win re-election.

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A Nanos poll on Tuesday, commissioned by CTV News and the Globe and Mail, found the proportion of 18-to-29-year-olds who plan on voting Liberal was 27%, down from 38% on Aug. 2. Their Conservative support was 23% compared with 19% in August.

“These were the people that Trudeau didn’t just need on side, but needed on side enough to go cast a ballot,” said Shachi Kurl, executive director of polling firm Angus Reid, referring to concerns about low voter turnout.

In 2015, overall turnout for voters between 18-24 jumped from 39% in 2011 to 57%, while total voter turnout was 68.5%, the highest since 1993.

Al Franken, who resigned his U.S. Senate seat in 2017 amid sexual misconduct charges, will re-emerge into the public sphere on Saturday when he starts a new weekly radio show on the SiriusXM satellite service.

The Minnesota Democrat is perhaps the most prominent public figure felled by the #MeToo movement to step back into public life. He said he has no plans to return to politics, but as an author, former "Air America" radio host and "Saturday Night Live" writer and comedian, he's returning to a realm he inhabited before becoming a senator. Sirius originally carried Franken's Air America show.

"I miss the Senate a lot but I'm not there so I want to be a voice," he said in an interview. Of the public's acceptance, he said "a lot of that will depend on me and whether folks think what I'm saying is important and fun at the same time."

The one-hour interview show with figures from politics, entertainment and other fields will air Saturdays at 10 a.m. ET on the Sirius Progress channel, with replays available on demand. Comic Chris Rock will be the first guest, with former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and comic Patton Oswalt lined up for future shows.