‘It inspired her’: Montrealer reflects on how U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris helped save her life

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris attended Westmount High School in Montreal and her best friend at that time, Wanda Kagan, is reflecting on their friendship then and now, days away from the presidential election.

“Montreal: it’s a part of her through me and through what we went through and so it’s nice to have that connection with her still, of those memories of Montreal and us bonding together here in high school,” Kagan said.

Harris, along with her mother and sister, moved to Montreal in the late 1970s. She met Kagan and formed a connection in high school.

“When I was in high school, I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda, she was sad at school and there were times she didn’t want to go home,” said Harris back in August, in her DNC speech accepting the Democratic Nomination for President.

What Kagan confided in Harris would change the course of her life and that of so many more.

“I was being abused sexually and physically abused at home,” said Kagan.

“She took me in to live with her and her family and then I then found out years later when we reconnected, which was over 20 years ago, that she said that I changed her life, what she went through with me inspired her to want to become a prosecutor and fight for women and children who have been abused.”

Harris continues to speak about Kagan’s story amid her presidential campaign.

“I get chills every time I hear her talk about about our story and about how it inspired her,” said Kagan. “For the people in of America to see what kind of person that she has always been and how she is always been a fighter and fights for what she believes in.”

Kagan says Harris has always been an advocate for women — even when it came to their high school prom in 1981, when many did not want to attend if they did not have a date.

“She was like, ‘No, we’re just going to break that. We’re just going to all go together as a group of girls and we’re going to have the best night of our lives,'” Kagan reflected. “And so that’s what we did.”

An inspiration for some students roaming the same halls Harris once did.

“I was not born there, I could not be the president, but it just makes me feel like I hold a lot of power, and the students around me also hold a lot of power, because she started here, and now she could possibly be the next American president, which is crazy,” said Maggie McKenzie, a grade 10 student at Westmount High School.

“It’s very honouring to have her as a part of the legacy because she’s, hopefully, instead of Trump, she’s the president, the first female president of the States, which is definitely a huge deal,” said Declan Evans-Cargnello, also a grade 10 student.

In a full circle moment, Kagan recently spoke at Westmount High’s graduation ceremony and her message remains one of kindness.

“Being kind to each other that brought us together and built that confidence in me to be able to confide in her and what I was going through,” said Kagan. “You just never know who or where that person is going to be because here we are 40 years later and she’s about to become president of the United States, hopefully.”

Kagan will be on-hand supporting her good friend in the U.S. on election night Nov. 5.

“I always say, any woman can make history but only a great woman can write history and I feel like I’m living her writing history.”