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With just days to go until voters in the United States elect a new president, all eyes are on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Although both candidates have ties to Montreal, there’s a pretty big connection between the city and the woman who could become the first female president of the United States, not to mention first Asian American president and first Black woman president.
Here’s everything you need to know about Harris’ ties to Montreal.
She moved to Montreal because of her mom’s (extremely impressive) job
Harris spent some of her most formative adolescent years living in Montreal.
According to a New York Times profile piece, she moved to Montreal from California when she was 12 with her sister and mother, Dr. Gopalan Harris, who was pursuing a career as a breast cancer researcher at the Jewish General Hospital and and McGill University Faculty of Medicine.
Harris’ mom actually “developed a method for assessing cancerous breast tissue that became a standard procedure nationwide” during her 16 years working in Montreal, The New York Times reported.
She went to three different local schools
After attending Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Elementary School for some time, Harris switched to F.A.C.E. School. She then went on to study at Westmount High where she was a student from 1978 until graduating in 1981.
She would have had very different experiences at each of these three schools since Notre-Dame-des-Neiges is a Francophone primary school, F.A.C.E is known for its arts program and Westmount was among the most diverse high schools in the area, despite being located in one of the city’s wealthiest enclaves.
She loved dancing and Little Burgundy
Yearbook excerpts, posted to Instagram by the English Montreal School Board, list Harris’ favourite pastime as dancing with troupes Super Six and Midnight Magic, which the National Post said she founded with her friend Wanda Kagan. The duo would perform at Montreal community centres and fundraisers.
Harris’ favourite expression at the time was, “Naw, I’m just playing!” as per the yearbook entry, where she made sure to give her mom a special thanks.
Kagan reportedly told the New York Times that, in those days, Harris was drawn to the “Little Burgundy kids” — the area was then known as ‘Harlem of the North’ due to its reputation as a thriving epicentre of Black culture. Apparently, Kagan and Harris “attended Black community dance parties and griped about having to be home by 11 p.m.”
She struggled to adjust to life in Montreal
In her 2019 memoir The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Harris spoke about her time in Montreal, describing the transition period as a challenge.
“Moving away from sunny California […] to a French-speaking foreign city covered in twelve feet of snow was distressing, to say the least,” she wrote.
“I used to joke that I felt like a duck because all day long at our new school I’d be saying ‘Quoi? Quoi? Quoi?'”
A pivotal experience with her high school best friend motivated her to become a prosecutor
Harris’ memoir also revealed that she got her start as a politics- and justice-minded activist during her time in Montreal.
In fact, at age 13, she protested in front of her apartment building after the owner banned children from playing soccer on the lawn.
But that wasn’t the only Montreal experience that shaped her future career choices.
In September 2020, Harris posted a video to X (then Twitter) in which she explained how her high school best friend’s sexual assault motivated her to become a lawyer.
“In high school, I found out my best friend was being molested by her father. One of the reasons I wanted to be a prosecutor was to protect people like her,” Harris said in the video.
The New York Times confirmed that it was Kagan who was being abused by her stepfather, leading her to move in with Harris’ family.
Despite eventually adjusting to life in la belle province, Harris said in her memoir that her “constant sense of yearning to be back home” persisted, and “there was no question” that she would attend university in the U.S. She graduated from Washington, D.C.’s Howard University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1986 before earning her Doctor of Law at the University of California.
She inspired Quebecers to swell with pride when she was elected vice-president
Upon Harris’ election to the position of vice-president of the United States in 2020, local politicians and public figures took to social media to share their pride.
Quebec Premier François Legault offered his congratulations to Harris on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “I also congratulate the Vice-President-elect, Ms. Kamala Harris, who spent part of her youth in Montreal. […] We hope to see you soon. You will always be welcome in Quebec.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Valérie Plante posted to X to say, “The wait was worth it. Congratulations to @JoeBiden ! @KamalaHarris , you made history today by breaking another glass ceiling.
Taking a different angle, Montreal author Heather O’Neill posted that she was “glad that Kamala Harris went to a public Montreal high school” because it “proves private schools are strictly for obnoxious segregation purposes.”
However, famous people weren’t the only ones using the 2020 Biden-Harris victory as an opportunity to claim Harris as one of our very own.
Her alma mater, Westmount High School (WHS), expressed excitement over the victory, posting that the school “couldn’t be more proud” to have a “WHS Knight in the White House,” referring to the name of its sports teams.
On the day of Harris’ inauguration, WHS students, staff and teachers uploaded a five-minute YouTube video sending her well-wishes and other touching messages to convey what it means to them to see an alumna ascend to the second-highest office in the United States.
“To see you, a woman, in your position of power — and a woman of colour at that — is truly inspiring,” one student said in the video.
Westmount High guidance counsellor Karen Allen added, “I’m so proud to have this role model be our alumni — that our students can look back at this moment and know that they will read about her in their history books.”
The event was just as monumental for members of Montreal’s general public who also articulated their feelings online.
“My late father would be chuffed!!!” wrote Dr. Alan Drummond on X (then Twitter), captioning a set of yearbook photos which convey that his father was a teacher at Westmount High at the same time that Harris was a student.
“Was not expecting to fall to my knees and scream but here we are!!!!!!!!” wrote Montrealer Gillian Leigh Sonin on X. “An amazing moment to remember that Kamala went to Montreal PUBLIC SCHOOL!”
Election Day 2024 is set to take place in the United States on Tuesday, November 5.
This article has been updated since it was originally published in July 2024.
This article’s cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
