David Marsden is a Calgary writer and editor. It’s often said an omission is worse than a lie. In other words, if you don’t reveal the complete truth, you are intentionally peddling a falsehood. That doesn’t speak well of an individual’s character.Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris did that Thursday in her stirring speech to close out the party’s convention in Chicago. She spoke passionately of her hardscrabble upbringing and moving around America as a young girl with her teacher mother, an immigrant from India.Harris never mentioned she spent many of her formative years in Canada. She arrived at age 12 in Quebec and graduated from high school in the province. So when Harris shared that a high school classmate revealed that she was being sexually abused, the conversation presumably happened in Canada.One of Harris’s Montreal schoolmates told the CBC that Harris changed her life.“When I was in high school, I was being molested by my stepfather, and Kamala and I were best friends. I shared the story with her, which is not always easy to do, to tell someone. And I was close with her.“I told her and she went home and told her mom, and her mom, she said, ‘she has to come stay with us.’ So I stayed with them for the latter part of the high school year.”Harris said Thursday that the emotional exchange persuaded her to pursue a career in law and bring offenders to justice — but again no mention of Canada.It’s clear that a candidate who characterizes her mother — who was a respected researcher focusing on breast cancer cures — as a teacher, is pandering to the lowest level of voter. If a person is truly proud of their past, they share it all, including their mother’s professional success and the time they spent in a foreign country.Perhaps that’s what politics does to a person. Democrats would rather rally around the daughter of poor immigrants, rather than someone who makes $284,600 a year and spent her early life in Canada. Harris talks a good talk, but has little in common with the average American she pretends to represent. They don’t fly around the world in a huge private jet while blathering about climate change. The average wage in the United States is shy of $64,000 a year, far short of the salary of the leader that is supposed to be one of them.But, of course, few people are interested in anything beyond their doorstep. They’d rather absorb Pollyanna rhetoric about freedom and a woman’s right to get an abortion, than hear the truth about a person’s past. Such soothing messages sell well with the electorate, so that’s what Democrats put on the shelf with tremendous flourish with their star-studded gala posing as a political convention.Her dismissal of Canada is reminiscent of the Canadian Caper, maybe better known as the theme of the 2012 movie Argo, starring Ben Affleck. After America granted asylum to the Shah of Iran in 1979, extremists attacked the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, but six diplomats escaped and were given protection in the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor.Part of the ruse was to conduct an imaginary film and provide the embassy staff with Canadian passports. If you watch Argo, Canada plays a small role, even though Taylor is widely credited for his resourcefulness in support of an important ally in volatile circumstances.For the Americans, it’s all about America. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a true telling of the facts would be welcome.Harris, for instance, pointed out Thursday her government worked out a bipartisan bill to ensure border security in the south. It’s not wrong to say Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pressured his party’s representatives to oppose the deal, so the problem of illegal immigration would survive for the election. But she declared Thursday, she would sign the bill into law as president.If that wasn’t possible this year, how will that be possible next year?Harris also spoke about ensuring Israel has the right and means to defend itself. Then she said Palestine has the right to safety and security. Isn’t that the struggle that has plagued the region for decades?She said the president and herself have been working around the clock to secure a peace deal in the Middle East. That claim either speaks to the intransigence of the Mideast parties or the ineffectiveness of President Joe Biden and Harris.There’s little doubt Harris would be a preferable president for Canadians. Unlike Trump, she isn’t threatening to cut off malingering NATO allies such as Canada. She’s also a bridge-builder, not a knocker-downer like Trump.Still, she should tell the truth, and when she fails to mention her Canadian connection during the biggest speech of her life, it raises question about her character. Americans deserve a fulsome account, if she’s going to ride on her past, not someone who picks and chooses the facts.David Marsden is a Calgary writer and editor.
