Kamala Harris’ Canada Connection: Why Her US Presidential Run ‘Makes Perfect Sense’ to Some

After U.S. President Joe Biden abruptly ended his re-election campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris now finds herself in a position to potentially become the first female president of the United States, and a potential Democratic presidential candidate with close ties to Canada.

Harris spent a number of formative years in Montreal, graduating from Westmount High School in 1981. In her own words, she described her time in the city in her memoir, The Truths We Cherish: An American Journey. She described arriving in the city as a 12-year-old girl in the mid-1970s, when her Indian-born mother Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer researcher, took a job at McGill University.

Dean Smith, co-owner of the Trevor Williams Kids Foundation, attended the same school as Harris and has a niece and nephew who were in the same class.

“I’m happy to see that she’s a black lady… She could be the first woman president of the United States, you know what I mean? And because she was here in Montreal, we went to school together, that’s the whole piece. I’m happy,” he said Monday.

“That’s the best connection you can ever have!”

Besides the bragging rights she may have, Smith noted that her experience as vice president and the possibility of her running for president are incredibly inspiring to local youth, especially young girls.

“It shows them that they can walk the same path as them… that they can do the same thing here.”

Dean added that his memories of her at Westmount match the person he sees in the news and that she even “smiles the same way.”

“She’s still the same now as she was then… wherever you put her, she gets along with everyone.”

Erin Kotecki-Vest, president of Democrats Abroad Canada, hopes that Harris “still has family here and roots from her formative years” will engage Canadians in American politics and motivate Americans living in Canada to get out the ballot and vote, regardless of party affiliation.

“Since I live here in Montreal and in Quebec, closer to the border, I notice that American sentiments sometimes seep into politics,” said Kotecki-Vest, whose voting state is California, where Harris served as attorney general and later senator.

“I hope that with Vice President Harris … that it gives the Canadians and the Americans who live here some comfort knowing that they have someone who knows their culture, who knows a little bit about how things work in their neighborhood, in their city, in their town, in their province.”

While Democrats Abroad has not officially endorsed anyone yet, Kotecki-Vest said she personally thinks it “makes perfect sense.”

“I think it’s a very transparent way for the American people who did vote in the primaries to look at that ticket and say, ‘Well, this was the person who was going to be number two no matter what happened.’”

Harris is the first woman of Black or South Asian descent to serve as vice president.

Biden announced Sunday that he was withdrawing amid widespread concerns about the viability of his candidacy.

He wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that Harris has his full support and approval to run against Donald Trump for president. Senate Emeritus Nancy Pelosi has also endorsed Harris.

— with files from Brayden Jagger Haines and Chris Megerian, Zeke Miller and Seung Min Kim of The Associated Press

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