What to know about the Canadian ties of Kamala Harris, Biden's choice for successor

U.S. President Joe Biden is stepping aside as the Democratic candidate in that country's November election and throwing his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris -- a Montreal-area high school graduate who spent several years in the city.

U.S. President Joe Biden is stepping aside as the Democratic candidate in that country's November election and throwing his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris -- a Montreal-area high school graduate who spent several years in the city.

Here's what to know about her Canadian connections. 

Before she became America's first female, first Black, and first South Asian vice president-elect, Harris spent several years in Montreal, where she attended Westmount High School from 1978 to 1981.

She moved to the city as a teen so her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer researcher, could work at the Lady Davis Institute of Montreal's Jewish General Hospital.

Harris enrolled at Westmount after an initial stint at a French-language school.

Dr. Michael Pollak, who worked with Gopalan in Montreal, described her in a note published on McGill University's website as a "pioneer" who left a mark on the institution, helping to develop a method of assessing cancerous breast tissue that became standard procedure at the Jewish General and other hospitals.

While Harris's biography on the White House website doesn't mention her time in Montreal, she later "recalled fondly" her years there in a 2021 call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to a summary of the conversation known as a readout.