[PHOTOS] “I don’t want to be Trump”: they recount the memories of a teenager named Kamala Harris in Montreal

Former school friends of Kamala Harris say she’s still the same teenager she was in the 1980s when she lived and studied in Montreal, and her rival Donald Trump is right to fear her.

• Read more: Barack Obama has announced that he will support Kamala Harris as a candidate for the presidency of the United States

“She was very nice and full of life. Kamala was involved in many groups, danced and got along well with everyone,” Derek Trott recalled in an interview. The Newspaper.

The Quebecer, who now lives in Sherbrooke, graduated from Westmount High School in 1981 with Kamala Harris. We can see the two across from each other in a classic class photo. M^me Harris poses looking straight at the camera in a white short-sleeved shirt. His arms were crossed behind his back as he wore an Adidas brand t-shirt.

“Kamala was small, but she had a good character and didn’t push herself. Given her experience today, I don’t want to argue against her. I don’t want to be Trump right now,” said Mr. Trott proudly recounts the life of his former acolyte.

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

Ben Bellows / JTM

A surprise to many

Kamala Harris actually moved to Quebec City in the late 1970s as a teenager, specifically for her mother Shyamala Gopalan to work as a researcher at the Lady Davis Institute in Montreal.

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Mrs. Harris’s entry in the 1981 yearbook.

Photo from English Montreal School Board Facebook page

Suzanne Bennett considers herself lucky to be in the same class as the president of the United States next November.

“She was always friendly. She always said hello to everyone and anyone. She was very beautiful. What you see today is what I saw then. But Kamala had curly hair before!”, he jokes.

Ms. Harris, while studying in Montreal in 1981.

Photo taken from the Facebook account of the English Montreal School Board

“She will already make history and I believe she will become the first female president of the United States,” said M.^me Bennett.

A false rumour?

Ariella Katz, an architect now living in Paris, is delighted to see her classmate succeed Joe Biden. We can also observe her in a 1981 photo of her as a teenager at a school desk with the vice-principal.

Vice President All smiles in a group of friends at Westmount High School.

Photo taken from the Facebook account of the English Montreal School Board

“To think that a former classmate of mine could become the next president of the United States is actually a bit unusual. As an American [temporairement] Transferred to Montreal like M^me Harris, I sincerely hope that she will become one!”, testifies M^me Gods.

Note that many rumors indicate that M^me Harris reportedly attended Vanier College after completing his studies at Westmount School, a claim the institution currently denies.

“There is nothing in the secretariat to prove that he was registered here in the 80s, but there is no evidence,” he confirmed Newspaper Marguerite Koriveau of Vanier College.

Kamala Harris in a 1981 yearbook photo.

Photo taken from the Facebook account of the English Montreal School Board

Not a Montreal fan

Our request for an interview with Montrealer Wanda Kagan, Kamala Harris’ childhood best friend, was unsuccessful this week.

By phone, Biden said he has been “overwhelmed” and “inundated with calls” since dropping out of the presidential race. So she could not confirm the details surrounding her friend’s educational background.

Left, Kamala Harris and her best friend Wanda Kagan at the White House in 2023. At right, two young women in Montreal.

Photos taken from Wanda Kagan’s Instagram account

M^me Harris returned to the United States in the fall of 1982 to study at Howard University, the subject of his autobiography. Our facts. In the book, the politician admits he wasn’t “enthusiastic” about moving to Montreal when he was 12.

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

An excerpt from the biography of Kamala Harris, Our facts, About Montreal:

“The idea of ​​leaving sunny California in February, in the middle of the school year, for a foreign, French-speaking town buried under three meters of snow, made me a little too upset. My mother tried to present it to us as an adventure, and took us shopping for our first down jackets and gloves. , we were going to face the winter of the great north, but it was hard for me to see things that way, and it was a real bonus to hear him tell us that we should learn the language there.