A Republican lawmaker in Michigan is getting flamed on social media as critics across the border take her to task for a bizarre hot take on Canada’s massive wildfires.
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) on Thursday expressed anger over smoke coming from over the border, causing dangerous drops in air quality not just in Canada but across the American Midwest and Northeast.
“Michiganders shouldn’t have to breathe Canada’s negligence. YEAR AFTER YEAR the smoke crosses the border while Canada does nothing. Stop exporting your smoke into our skies. Enough is enough!”
McClain is among several Republican lawmakers who’ve claimed that Canada hasn’t done enough forest management to prevent and control wildfires.
She and four of her GOP colleagues sent a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney claiming Canada “has the tools” to prevent the wildfires, but “has chosen not to.”
Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
“If Canada will not manage its forests to prevent these fires, the United States will look elsewhere, and act on our own, to protect our people,” they wrote.
There are nearly 900 active wildfires across Canada, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, and many are burning out of control.
However, the United States is not immune to fires, either. So far this year, nearly 40,000 wildfires have burned more than 3.67 million acres across the United States, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
And as many of McClain’s critics noted on social media, rather than pointing the finger, Canada often sends help in battling those fires when needed ― including during last year’s devastating fires across Southern California.
McClain’s critics hit back on X: