MONTREAL, Canada– A bleak forecast engulfs the city, grey skies have moved in and a landscape encapsulated by snow has been frozen to its core. Sheltering themselves from the harsh elements’ students scurry off of Dorchester Boulevard, onto St. Catherine Street where Westmont High School awaits them. The Montreal high school boasts alumni in the form of poet and musician Leonard Cohen, Oxford philosopher and medical researcher Jeremy Howick, hockey’s great forward Art Ross, pioneer of astronomy David. H Levy, and Oakland, CA native Kamala Harris.
Harris’s Canadian roots mark the fourth consecutive time a U.S. presidential election features someone with Canadian ties. Born in Calgary, Texas Senator, Ted Cruz was a leading candidate for the Republican primary in 2016. Konrad Ng, Barack Obama’s brother-in-law is a Burlington, Ontario native.
In the late 1970s, Kamala Harris accompanied her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, to Montreal. As a renowned biomedical scientist, she accepted a position at McGill University’s Jewish General Hospital. At McGill, Gopalan would make headway as a pioneer in the breast cancer field.
In Montreal, Kamala Harris spent her formative years developing into the leader she is today. At 13, Harris began protesting a no-playing in-the-yard policy at their apartment building. While navigating the diverse halls of Westmont High School she co-founded a dance troupe to prepare for her time at Howard University.
Harris resided in an anglophone suburb of Montreal, during a time of great political instability. The province of Quebec went through two referendums of independence in 1980, and 1981. Led by sovereignties’ leader Rene Levesque, Francophones were asserting themselves with their desire for an independent country of Quebec.
Westmount High was no escape from this politicized climate. With segregation of their own, the school had been described as a melting pot of cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds. Absorbing many shunned anglophone students, the student body comprised upper-middle-class students to the extremely poor. English schools were closing and the anglophone population of Montreal was diminishing. It would have been difficult to find someone without an opinion on separation.
Graduating in 1981, Harris departed Canada to attend Howard University in Washington D.C. Four years later, she was hired as a deputy attorney in Alameda County, California. Working her way up to the District Attorney of San Francisco in 2004 where she served until 2011.
With Kamala as the DA, the conviction rate for drug dealers escalated from 56% to 74% in 2006. Within the first six months as DA, her office cleared 27 of the 74 backlogged homicide cases.
In 2011, Kamala Harris was elected Attorney General of California. In 2013, Harris, alongside Assembly Speaker John Perez and Senate President Darrell Steinberg, introduced the Homeowners Bill of Rights, one of the most formidable protections against hawkish foreclosure tactics.
In 2016, after five years as Attorney General where she focused on LGBT rights, gun control, criminal justice reform, law enforcement, and environmental protection, Harris became California’s newest senator.
Now in 2020, she is Presidential Candidate Joe Biden’s running mate, but her Montreal ties are hardly forgotten. Amidst her political success, Harris created a women’s auxiliary group at Highland Hospital in Oakland, just as her mother had at the McGill University’s Jewish General in Montreal.
In the late 1970s, a 12-year-old Kamala Harris may not have wanted to move to Montreal. Nevertheless, her time in Canada’s unique city proved formative. As Presidential Elections are upon us, many in Canada will watch on Election Day November 3rd.
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