Journalists from World Press Institute Paddle with P&P
Ian Froese covers the Manitoba Legislature and provincial politics for CBC News in Winnipeg. He reported on wildfires that burned in Manitoba this summer. Some of the smoke from these wildfires drifted down to Minnesota throughout the peak of the summer tourism season on the North Shore and across the BWCA.
The smoke prompted U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber and other lawmakers from Minnesota and Wisconsin to write a letter sent to the Canadian government requesting them to take action to “mitigate wildfire and the smoke that makes its way south.”
“In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all these things,” Stauber and the other members of Congress wrote.
The letter was mocked by many across Canada in the U.S., with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew calling it a “timber tantrum.” Ian Froese paddled on Poplar Lake Sept. 17 and spoke with Joe Friedrichs about the timber tantrum letter and other news relevant to the border waters of Canada and Minnesota.