Michigan's sky turned gray again this month. Wildfire smoke from Northern Ontario poured across the border, and air quality warnings went up across the state. So four of Michigan's Republicans in Congress — Jack Bergman, John James, Lisa McClain, and John Moolenaar — did the easy thing. They wrote an angry letter to Canada.

The letter, sent July 15 to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, says "American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year." It lectures Canada that "sovereignty comes with responsibility." And it ends with a threat: "If Canada will not manage its forests to prevent these fires, the United States will look elsewhere, and act on our own, to protect our people."

Here's the problem. If you actually care about the air Michiganders breathe, you don't start by pointing across the border. You start by looking at your own voting record. And theirs is about as bad as it gets.

All four have a 0% environmental record

The League of Conservation Voters scores every member of Congress on how they vote to protect clean air, clean water, and a livable climate. All four of these lawmakers earned the same grade in 2025: zero percent.

• Jack Bergman: 0% in 2025, 7% for his career.
• John James: 0% in 2025, 7% for his career.
• Lisa McClain: 0% in 2025, 1% for her career.
• John Moolenaar: 0% in 2025, 7% for his career.

You cannot score a zero by accident. It takes voting against clean air, again and again. These four are furious about smoke in the air — but when it comes time to actually vote for cleaner air, they vote no every single time.

They helped make the fires worse

The letter treats Canada's wildfires like a mystery — as if the forests just decided to burn. They didn't. Scientists have been clear for years: climate change is supercharging these fires. Hotter, drier conditions turn forests into tinder, extend the burning season, and even let fires keep burning through the night when they used to cool down.

This isn't a guess. An attribution study of Canada's record-breaking 2023 fire season found that human-caused climate change more than doubled the likelihood of a season that bad across much of the country. 2025 was the second-worst wildfire season in Canadian history. The smoke choking Michigan is not just Canada's problem to solve — it's the direct result of a warming planet that Bergman, James, McClain, and Moolenaar have spent their entire careers refusing to do anything about.

You can't vote to pump more carbon into the sky, kill clean-energy programs, and weaken the EPA — and then act shocked when the forests next door catch fire and blow the smoke your way.

Echoing Trump's threats against Canada

Look again at that last line: the United States will "look elsewhere, and act on our own." The letter even says U.S. agencies should explore "direct involvement in cross-border" firefighting on Canadian land.

That's not diplomacy. That's the same bullying language Donald Trump has aimed at Canada for over a year — repeatedly floating annexing the country and calling it the "51st state." Canadian leaders have shot it down flatly. Prime Minister Carney said it will "never happen." Ontario Premier Doug Ford put it even more simply: "Canada is not for sale."

And here's the part that should make you laugh — or maybe wince. The letter lectures Canada that "sovereignty comes with responsibility." But these are four members of the same party whose leader has spent a year openly threatening Canada's sovereignty — saying its people should give up their country and join the United States. You don't get to demand respect for a border you keep talking about erasing. If sovereignty really comes with responsibility, the first responsibility is respecting that your neighbor is a country, not a takeover target.

Wrapping "act on our own" around a wildfire complaint is just a softer version of the same message: that the U.S. can march across the border whenever it decides a neighbor isn't doing enough. It's a stunt aimed at a foreign government — not a plan to help the people back home actually breathing the smoke.

Who they actually work for

If these four wanted cleaner air, they'd have plenty to work on at home. Instead, look at who funds them.

John James's top donors include the utility giants CMS Energy and DTE Energy. John Moolenaar's list also features DTE Energy. These are Michigan's biggest fossil-fuel-burning utilities — exactly the companies whose emissions help drive the warming that fuels these fires. That's who's paying for these campaigns, and their votes show it.

Blaming Canada costs them nothing. It doesn't upset a single donor. It doesn't require casting one tough vote. It's a free headline that lets them look tough while doing nothing about the real problem.

The bottom line

Nobody is saying Canada's forest management is perfect, or that the smoke isn't a genuine health threat — it is. But the people breathing it deserve leaders who fix problems, not leaders who use them for a photo op.

Bergman, James, McClain, and Moolenaar want credit for caring about Michigan's air. Their records say otherwise. Four zeros from the League of Conservation Voters. Years of votes to weaken clean-air protections and climate action. Campaign money from the utilities heating up the planet. And now a letter that trades real solutions for a Trump-style threat against a neighbor.

When the smoke clears, the record stays. And theirs is a zero.

Source

Global News, "Michigan Republicans say Canada's apologies won't clear their skies as wildfire smoke drifts across border" (July 16, 2026).