Analysis
Ontario Premier Doug Ford called President Donald Trump‘s criticism of Canada’s wildfire response “absolutely unacceptable” on Saturday, as smoke from spreading forest fires continued choking a broad swath of the eastern United States.
“We’re trying to get through this,” Ford said during a press briefing, adding that if the situation were reversed, Canada would support the U.S. Ford said 655,000 hectares (1.6 million acres) are burning across Ontario, with “no limit” on provincial spending to protect residents.
On Friday, Trump called the smoke crisis “totally unacceptable” in a Truth Social post, saying the U.S. was being “invaded by filthy, polluted” air and that wildfire-related costs should factor into existing Canadian tariffs.
Ford Says Dropping Lumber Tariffs Would Ease Crisis Ford also pushed back, urging Trump to drop U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber instead. Tariff-free exports, he said, “would resolve a lot of the issues we face right now.”
Federal Emergencies Minister Eleanor Olszewski said on Friday the Canadian Armed Forces are evacuating residents from Fort Hope, a community in northwestern Ontario where some of the most intense wildfires are burning.
Air Quality Alerts Spread Across U.S. Northeast On Saturday, Canada’s Department of Natural Resources reported 955 active wildfires across the country, including 69 new fires that started overnight. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow website rated air quality as “unhealthy” across Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C., while Pittsburgh was rated “very unhealthy.”