[PHOTOS] 'I don't want to be Trump': Reminiscing about Kamala Harris, a teenager, in Montreal

Kamala Harris's former school friends, when she lived and studied in Montreal, say the 1980s teenager is the same today and that her rival Donald Trump is right to be afraid of her.

• Read also: Barack Obama Endorses Kamala Harris as US Presidential Candidate

“She was so wonderful and full of life. Kamala was on so many committees, she danced and got along so well with everyone,” Derek Trott recalled in an interview with the Newspaper.

This Kippy, who now lives in Sherbrooke, graduated from Westmount High School in 1981 with Kamala Harris. They can also be seen in a classic class photo, diagonally across from each other.^I Harris is wearing a white, short-sleeved shirt and staring directly into the camera as he strikes a pose. While wearing an Adidas T-shirt, his arms are crossed behind his back.

“Kamala was small, but she had a good personality and didn’t allow herself to be pressured. With all her experience today, I don’t want to be in an argument against her. I don’t want to be Trump now,” Mr. Trott says sarcastically, proud of his former aide’s career.

The facade of Westmount High School, which Ms. Harris attended in the 1980s, taken on July 25, 2024.

Ben Belous / JdeM

Surprise to many

Kamala Harris actually moved to Quebec City as a teenager in the late 1970s, and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, left California to work in particular as a researcher at the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal.

See also  Bangladesh: Ahmed Bin Kassim, Eight Years in Detention in the “House of Mirrors”

Mrs. Harris's record in her 1981 yearbook.

Photo taken from the Montreal English School Board Facebook page.

Susan Bennett considers herself lucky to be in the same class as the person who may actually become president of the United States next November.

“She was always friendly. She always said hello to everyone and everyone. She was so kind. What you see today is what I saw then. But Kamala had curly hair before!” she joked.

Ms. Harris when she was studying in Montreal in 1981.

Photo taken from the Montreal English School Board Facebook account.

“I hope she makes history, even more than she already has, and becomes the first female president of the United States,” M adds.^I Bennett.

False rumor?

Ariella Katz, an architect now living in Paris, is also happy to see her classmate who could succeed Joe Biden. She can also be seen in a 1981 photo next to the then-teenage vice president on a school desk.

The Vice President smiles among a group of friends at Westmount High School.

Photo taken from the Montreal English School Board Facebook account.

“It is somewhat unusual to think that my former colleague could become the next President of the United States. As an American [temporairement] He was transferred to Montreal, as M.^I “Harris, I so wish you were!” M testifies.^I Katz.

Note that several rumors indicate that M^I Harris is said to have attended Vanier College after completing his studies at Westmount School, a claim the institution currently denies.

He stressed: “There is nothing in the secretariat to prove that it was registered here in the eighties. We tried to find it, but there is no evidence.” Newspaper Margaret Corriveau of Vanier College.

Kamala Harris in a 1981 yearbook photo.

Photo taken from the Montreal English School Board Facebook account.

I'm not a Montreal fan.

Our request to interview Kamala Harris's childhood best friend, Montreal native Wanda Kagan, was unsuccessful this week.

She said by phone that she had been “extremely stressed” and “swamped with calls” since Biden dropped out of the race, so it was not possible to confirm details surrounding her friend’s educational background with her.

On the left, Kamala Harris and her best friend Wanda Kagan in the White House in 2023. On the right, the two women as teenagers in Montreal.

Photos taken from Wanda Kagan's Instagram account.

M^I Harris returned to the United States to study at Howard University in the fall of 1982, according to her autobiography, Our factsIn this book, the politician admits that she was not “excited” to move to Montreal when she was twelve years old.

Kamala Harris (right) and her childhood best friend Wanda Kagan in front of their high school in Montreal.

Photo taken from Wanda Kagan's Instagram account.

Excerpt from Kamala Harris's biography, Our facts, About Montreal:

“The idea of ​​leaving sunny California in February, right in the middle of the school year, for a foreign French-speaking city, buried under three feet of snow, bothered me a little more than that. My mother tried to present it to us as an adventure, taking us to buy our first jackets and gloves as if we were going to face the great northern winter as explorers. But I had a hard time seeing things that way. The real reward was hearing him tell us that we would have to learn the language there.