She has good reason given the brand of politics in today’s U.S., where there is disdain for things foreign, and worldliness is a liability.
Since Kamala Harris dramatically entered the presidential race in July, she has struggled to introduce herself to Americans who say they don’t know her.
Because Joe Biden didn’t withdraw and anoint her his successor until after the primaries, she missed that intense scrutiny, as well as the opportunity to tell her story. In her 100-day sprint to the election, she’s made up for lost time by emphasizing her experience in California as district attorney, attorney general, U.S. senator and vice-president.
Other things she’d like voters to know: She is proudly from the middle class. She was raised by a single mother from India, a medical researcher. She worked at McDonald’s. She attended Howard University. She cooks spaghetti Bolognese. She works out. She owns a handgun.
In her biography, though, there’s a missing chapter. It’s her season as an adolescent in Montreal from 1976 to 1982. Of this, she says suspiciously little.
She barely mentions being a student at Westmount High School in her 2019 memoir. When reporters ask, her campaign doesn’t answer. It begs the question: Why has Harris written Montreal out of her story?
Actually, given history and politics in the United States, she has good reason. Montreal, you see, is in Canada, a foreign country, where millions speak French, a foreign language. Canada is a progressive social welfare state, built on immigration, bilingualism and diversity. For Donald Trump, the prince of parochialism, this is anathema.
The watchword of his candidacy is fear of others. He talks endlessly about the crisis on the southern border and demonizes newcomers. He wants to impose draconian tariffs to keep out foreign imports. He rejects foreign alliances, such as NATO, and opposes its muscular commitment to Ukraine.
Xenophobia, nativism, protectionism and isolationism define Trump. And then there’s little ol’ Canada, his northern neighbour, embracing immigration, pluralism, free trade and multilateralism at home and abroad.
Distrust of foreigners didn’t start with Trump, who falsely claimed Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States. There is an enduring disdain of things foreign in U.S. national politics.
Being francophiles certainly didn’t hurt the careers of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, who served as diplomats in 18th century Paris and supported the French Revolution. But that kind of worldliness is now a liability.
Next thing, to publicize the sin of Harris living in Montreal, he’ll be serving poutine at Orange Julep on Décarie Blvd.
It has come to this in 2024. If Harris is hiding her years in Montreal, it’s because she knows that in a smaller, meaner America, a little Canada is a dangerous thing.
Andrew Cohen is a journalist, commentator and author of Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy and the 48 Hours That Made History. A native of Montreal, he lives in Maine and Ottawa.