BC Air Warnings on US Smoke While Trump Blames Canada
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- British Columbia issued air quality alerts Saturday evening after smoke from 22 large fires in Washington and Oregon drifted north, with warnings covering Kootenay Lake and Cranbrook along the BC-US border.
- Donald Trump posted on social media Friday that the US had been "invaded" by dirty air and wrote that the "cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying."
- Canada had 843 active wildfires as of Monday, including 181 classified as "out of control" with suppression efforts failing and another 532 out-of-control fires where suppression actions had not yet been attempted, per the Canadian government.
- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who sat beside Trump at Sunday's World Cup final, sidestepped the criticism by telling reporters that "fighting climate change is the responsibility of all countries, including the United States."
- Ontario Premier Doug Ford fired back at critics Friday, saying they should "send support, send help" rather than complain and noting Ontario has helped fight American wildfires in the past.
- Canada's Emergency Preparedness Minister Eleanor Olszewski said Canada has invested C$12bn (£6.36bn) on fire prevention and forest sustainability over the past five years, calling the crisis "a challenge that knows no borders."
Why it matters: British Columbia's warnings explicitly name Washington and Oregon fires as the source, undermining the Trump administration's narrative that Canada alone is responsible for cross-border smoke. The optics intensify ahead of ongoing trade talks: Trump used the World Cup final appearance to renew tariff threats while Canada's C$12bn fire-prevention spend and Carney's pointed climate-responsibility rebuttal sharpen the diplomatic friction.
