Canada must stop the smoke.This is according to Republican representative for Michigan, John James, who is also one of the candidates being endorsed by President Donald Trump for Michigan Governor.James called on Canada to end its wildfires currently plaguing the eastern part of the country, in a post on X. "FINAL WARNING TO CANADA: Manage your forests to prevent these fires. American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year," wrote James on Thursday."Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country’s airspace has not been met.".This comes after a significant wildfire season in Canada, with around 860 wildfires reported in the country as of Thursday.Reported by Yahoo News, the bulk of the fires are occurring in the northwestern part of Ontario while the accumulated smoke has been traveling to parts of the Midwest and Northeast of the US.According to AccuWeather, many wildfires are also occurring in northern Minnesota, which is right below Ontario.The fires are causing some of the worst air quality in the world in cities like Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit..Canadian cities have also been impacted by poor air quality, with Toronto's air quality being classified as a very high risk, and Winnipeg's air falling not far behind.The 2026 wildfire season has yet to reach record breaking levels so far, since the 2023 and 2025 seasons are still ahead — though the feds have stated they expect the number of fires to continue to increase.As of Thursday, the feds reported of the 860 current fires, 107 of them were out of control, and 72 were being under control. They claim to have 558 of the wildfires "being monitored." .Wildfires are usually either started by lightning, or human activity.Of the 49 new wildfires started Thursday alone, 18 have been reported by the feds as being caused by human activity, while 21 were naturally occurring and 10 were undetermined.The US currently has a total of 554 active wildfires as of Thursday.A Republican senator for Ohio, Bernie Moreno, claimed in an X post he would be introducing a bill to sanction Canada and "responsible Canadian government officials for this atrocity.".Another American on X, Mark Naymik, reacted to the wildfire smoke being pulled in his city's, Cleveland's, direction. "I don't want to downplay the seriousness of the wildfire smoke, but I will try to sound very Cleveland.""A slightly more cynical colleague remarked, 'This is what Cleveland looked like every day in 1977. And smelled worse.'"
