‘Summertime is the best time here,’ Camp said. ‘I have tourists in the shop, the weather is perfect and the days are long.’

‘Yes, nature at its best which brings me to an interesting topic. Did you hear about those six Republican members of the US Congress who penned a public letter to Canada’s ambassador in Washington, demanding that their northern neighbours need to control the smoke emanating from the hundreds of wildfires, currently raging across Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan?”

‘Yes, I read about that. Now isn’t that the craziest idea ever that we can control the wind and the smoke, never mind the fires that cause them?’

‘Let me read to you what they wrote: We write to you today on behalf of our constituents who have had to deal with suffocating Canadian wildfire smoke filling the air. While we know a key driver of this issue has been a lack of active forest management, we’ve also seen things like arson as another way multiple large wildfires have ignited in Canada.’ I quoted. ‘And it goes on and on about how the Canadian smoke is ruining recreational weekends and takes away the ability to create new memories.’

‘Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew pointed out: ‘We’ve lost two Manitobans this wildfire season and we got a couple of ambulance-chasing congresspeople trying to politicize these disasters. We love our American friends but this is just childish.’

‘He’s right,’ I said. ‘In January, Trump blamed Californians for their wildfires, suggested they need more raking. What? In the boreal forest?’ Here in Canada, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith simply faulted the federal government for last year’s wildfire that destroyed parts of Jasper.’ 

‘A most unhelpful blame game,’ Camp said. ‘Robert Gray, a B.C.-based ecologist who has spent more than 40 years managing wildland fires in the U.S., Canada and other jurisdictions, said it was notable that these Congress members did not acknowledge the effects of climate change in their letter.’