Here's What Kamala Harris Had To Say About Living In Montreal In Her Memoir

"All day long [...] I'd be saying 'Quoi? Quoi? Quoi?'"
Staff Writer

We all know by now that Vice Presidential-hopeful Kamala Harris spent much of her formative years in Montreal and graduated from Westmount High but according to her memoir, her time in Montreal wasn't all sunshine and rainbows at first. 

In The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Harris reveals that she wasn't happy with her move from California to Montreal at the young age of 12 but that eventually, she got used to it.

Harris made clear, however, that the desire to return to the U.S. never went away.

Editor's Choice: The Pandemic Led To An 'Explosion Of Kittens' In Montreal, Here's How You Can Help

Moving away from sunny California [...] to a French-speaking foreign city covered in twelve feet of snow was distressing, to say the least.

Kamala Harris 

One thing that is sure to be familiar with all new Montrealers is trying to navigate the French language.

Harris's experience was no different. She called it a "difficult transition."

Though her mother was enthusiastic about her kids learning the language of Molière, Harris said that her time in French school was no walk in the park.

"I used to joke that I felt like a duck because all day long at our new school I'd be saying 'Quoi? Quoi? Quoi?'"

Like many Montrealers, Harris had a political streak, protesting with her sister in front of their apartment building to let them play soccer on the lawn, and like many protest attendees, Harris spent some time at a fine arts school. 

"By the time I got to high school," Harris wrote, "I had adjusted to our new surroundings."

But the "constant sense of yearning to be back home" persisted, and, to her, "there was no question" about attending university in the United States.

Harris's desire became a reality. She went on to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C.

  • Teddy Elliot
  • Teddy Elliot was a Staff Writer for MTL Blog. He was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec and has a B.A. in Literature. Teddy has been a journalist for three years and was once an English teacher. His creative work has appeared in The Blasted Tree and Parenthetical Magazine. When he's not chasing scoops, Teddy can be found cheering on Aston Villa and listening to 80s power ballads. He was shortlisted for a Digital Publishing Award in 2021.

Montreal saw over 400 break-ins in April — These are the hardest-hit areas

April saw the highest single-month total of 2026 so far.

I went to Paris as a Montrealer & spent the entire trip being corrected on my own language

There is often a sense that they see our accent and culture as lesser than theirs...

A Montreal man is filling in potholes for free but the mayor wants him to stop

"It is not up to you or your team to have to fill in the potholes yourselves."

Quebec is considering banning energy drinks for kids under 16 after a teen's death

One family's loss is driving a provincewide push for change.