Manitoba premier fires back at American lawmakers complaining about wildfire smoke

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew responded to six lawmakers from Minnesota and Wisconsin complaining about wildfire smoke in their states.

Manitoba’s premier is firing back at several Republican lawmakers in the United States who are criticizing the presence of wildfire smoke drifting from Canada to the United States.

On Tuesday, Wisconsin representatives Tom Tiffany and Glenn Grothman and Minnesota representatives Brad Finstad, Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach and Pete Stauber wrote to Kirsten Hillman, the Canadian ambassador to the United States, asking what Canada is doing to mitigate wildfire smoke.

The lawmakers said years of wildfires have reduced air quality in their states and has impacted the ability of Americans to enjoy summer. They cited forest management and arson as possible factors behind the fires, but did not mention climate change.

When asked by reporters during a news conference Thursday, Premier Wab Kinew praised the work of American firefighters who have come to help Canada battle the wildfires.

“I’ve shaken the hands of American firefighters in northern Manitoba who are helping us out, and I would challenge these ambulance chasers in the U.S. Congress to go and do the same and to hear how much the American firefighting heroes who are here, how much they loved our province,” he said.

Kinew then criticized the politicians for sowing division.

“This is what turns people off from politics, is when you got a group of Congress people trying to trivialize and make hay out of a wildfire season where we’ve lost lives in our province,” he said. “There’s no place for that in politics.

“If you can’t get likes on Instagram from your own skills as a politician, don’t bother trying to throw other people under the bus during a state of emergency.”

With files from The Canadian Press