With Donald Trump’s landslide victory, the outcome of the US presidential election has become the talk of the town at Kamala Harris University in Montreal.
Kadiatu Barry, a 14-year-old Westmount High School student, was disappointed when she woke up Wednesday morning to learn that Harris would not take the top job in the White House. But the teen says she respects the results.
“I thought Kamala Harris was what America desperately needed,” Barry said. “But if they want Trump, I think that’s what they want.”
Long before becoming a US vice president and presidential candidate, Harris spent several years in the Canadian city as a teenager. She attended Westmount High School for three years and graduated in 1981.
Harris moved to Montreal so her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer researcher, could work at the Lady Davis Institute at the city’s Jewish General Hospital. After an initial stint at a French language school, Harris enrolled at Westmount University.
Kamala Harris appears in the high school yearbook from Westmount High School Class of 1981, in Montreal on September 20, 2017.
Stefan Bliss/The Canadian Press
The Montreal English School Board issued a statement congratulating Harris on becoming vice president-elect in 2020, which included a photo of students holding hand-drawn posters reading “Congratulations Kamala! Class of ’81!’
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Barry says she is among many students in Harris’ old stomping grounds who were hoping for a different outcome this week.
But the veteran politician’s career has been an inspiration to many, according to the teenager.
“I’m so proud of her,” Barry said. “And she continues to influence so many young girls to pursue their dreams and be amazing.”
Kadiatou Barry and Aminata Diallo are students at Westmount High School in Montreal. Kamala Harris graduated from the same school in 1981.
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Aminata Diallo, who also attends Westmount High School, was closely watching the election results with her parents when she had to go to bed Tuesday night. She hoped Harris would come back.
The result was what both staff and students talked about throughout the school the next day, hours before Harris delivered a concession speech in which she urged Americans not to despair and “keep fighting” for the promise of a brighter future.
“Everyone I spoke to was disappointed. We were looking forward to our school graduates becoming president of the United States,” said 14-year-old Diallo.
“I hope she runs again in 2028.”
Those who have walked the same paths as Harris hope that she will one day become the head of American leadership and feel proud that she almost became president.
“I think she should run again in the next four years,” Barry said.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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