“dumpster fire” (esp. “raging”)

In 2013 and 2014, a private Canadian company, Chronic Inc., shipped 103 containers of garbage, wrongly labelled as recycling, to the Philippines, setting off a diplomatic dumpster fire.
— Joanna Chiu and Ainslie Cruickshank, Toronto Star, May 30.

Another day, another dumpster fire.The release of the interim Auditor General’s report Tuesday has given the opposition parties five new avenues from which to assault this beleaguered Liberal government.
— John Ivison, National Post, May 7.

I was part of Jean Chrétien’s team when his government took office in 1993. Easy as it is to forget a quarter century later, the new government had inherited an epic dumpster fire.
— Peter Donolo, Policy Options, April 16.

Expansion, of course, is one way to get a [new Canadian NHL] team. The other is a relocation scenario, where a U.S.-based dumpster-fire of a hockey situation reaches Atlanta Thrashers-sized proportions, and the team/league cries uncle and heads north.
— Joe O’Connor, Financial Post, Apr. 10.

LavScam is the perfect fusion of a communications crisis and the law. It has all the requisite elements. Possible obstruction of justice, possible breach of trust – and, indisputably, a raging dumpster fire of a comms crisis.
— Warren Kinsella, Hill Times, Apr. 8.

Veep takes the view that the United States that Selina wants to run is a dumpster fire of lies, rage and aggression. Everyone is delusional about their grievances and entitlements. There isn’t a single reference to Donald Trump in this fictional political universe and there doesn’t need to be any connection to him.
— John Doyle, Globe and Mail, Apr. 3.

It was billed as a fireside chat, which held out the promise that sparks might fly. Early Tuesday afternoon, Margaret Atwood, this country’s favourite novelist of cautionary bestsellers (including the not-intentionally-anti-Trump The Handmaid’s Tale) would face off against Jack Dorsey, the CEO of the social media service Twitter, which helped enable the rise of Donald Trump and a raging dumpster fire of toxic behaviour. How long before she levelled him with her speedy tweeting thumbs?
— Simon Houpt, Globe and Mail, Apr. 2.

So, how does Trudeau do that? How does he extinguish the five-alarm dumpster fire that now threatens to raze his one-term government to the ground?
— Warren Kinsella, Toronto Sun, Apr. 1.

The Canadiens have been underdogs since the season began. Coming off the 2017-’18 dumpster fire, who expected this team to be playing important games in the third week of March? No one, that’s who. — Mike Boone, Montreal Gazette, Mar. 26.

By virtue of not entering the season as a complete dumpster fire, the Blue Jays stand a chance at that second wild card. The bar is not set high.
— Myles Dichter, CBC Sports, Mar. 26.

The dumpster fire seems to be under control in Edmonton. Columbus, in total disarray after sacrificing a massive chunk of the future in a reckless attempt to win a Stanley Cup this spring, has moved past the Oilers and become the NHL franchise most similar to a three-alarm blaze at the moment.
— Damien Cox, Toronto Star, Mar. 8.

Someone from the real world — anywhere outside a two-kilometre radius of Parliament Hill — could explain to the Prime Minister that this issue changed quite some ago from an ‘issue’ into something more akin to a dumpster fire. When your best friend pulls the pin on you, and when two of your senior ministers throw the keys to the limos back in your face, then the fire extinguishers should have already been deployed. — Chuck Strahl, Toronto Sun, Mar. 8.

The early dumpster fire notwithstanding, the Canadiens did not play a terrible game.
— Mike Boone, Montreal Gazette, Mar. 2.

Well, that was a really slow news week in Ottawa, eh? Hardly! Ezra Levant joins us to offer his insight into the ongoing dumpster fire that is the SNC Lavalin scandal.
— David Menzies, The Rebel, Mar. 1.

It’s a simple enough fix — scoring wingers are by far the easiest commodity to acquire in this league (ask the Devils), but when management paints itself into a financial corner (this 12-year dumpster fire is the fourth most expensive roster in the league) and pro scouting jobs seem based on who you know, it’s hard to have much faith in the future.
— Robert Tychkowski, Edmonton Sun, Feb. 28.

As demonstrated Saturday night, Toronto is a Stanley Cup contender. The Canadiens aren’t.They’re a rebuilding team that has bounced back from the Dumpster fire that was the 2017-’18 season.
— Mike Boone, Montreal Gazette, Feb. 23.

But if public servants or officials are in the news, then there’s probably something wrong. The consensus seems to be that we ought to let politicians grandstand, to let members of Parliament be the story, to let the folks we vote for act as our pace cars or guides, and—finally—to let elected representatives be held accountable. Wernick’s testimony seemed to violate that expectation at very much the wrong time, thus adding fuel to what’s already a raging national dumpster fire.
— David Moscrop, Maclean’s, Feb. 22.

It doesn’t help that the front row of the Opposition benches is inhabited by former cabinet ministers responsible for files and issues that have come to haunt the Liberals. Take your pick: money laundering, the dumpster fire that is the province’s public insurer, the housing crisis, the financial mess at BC Hydro.
— Gary Mason, Globe and Mail, Feb. 22.

WINNER (TIE): Montreal Gazette (3); Globe and Mail (3)
RUNNER-UP (TIE): Toronto Star (2); Toronto Sun (2)
MVPs: Mike Boone (3); Warren Kinsella (2)