If you were a member of a public institution viewed with skepticism by many taxpayers, what would be the perfect thing you could do to convince the doubters that their skepticism is warranted, and that you are completely out of touch with reality?

Canadian senators, no slouches they, nailed it this week when they awarded themselves commemorative medals designed to honour the "unsung heroes" in our society.

This is not satire. Repeat: This is not satire.

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The Senate spent $225,000 to buy 1,500 bronze medals marking the 150th anniversary of the upper chamber. Each of the 93 sitting members gets 12 medals to give away to "people who have worked hard in their communities, made contributions, unsung heroes, people that generally go unnoticed," according to Conservative Senator David Wells, who spearheaded the medal effort.

But there is also a medal for any senator who wants one, "as a recognition of their contribution to the Parliamentary debate over the last 150 years," according to Mr. Wells.

At least 47 senators took up the offer, and are presumably no longer blue about the fact that the only other compensation they receive for their sacrifice is the guaranteed, indexed annual salary of $145,000 they will get until they turn 75, their generous pension, their $150,000 in annual office expenses, their $22,000 in annual living expenses in Ottawa if they happen to be from outside the National Capital Region (most of them are), and the free travel they get for themselves and their spouses.

Nothing like a bronze medal to round that out.

The truly sad thing about this is that a group of senators, led by Mr. Wells and Serge Joyal, originally wanted to spend $558,750 to buy 5,000 bronze and silver medals, but were disappointed in March when the Senate's internal economy, budgets and administration committee sensibly voted against the extravagant exercise.

They had to settle with far fewer bronze medals, which meant they would be able to honour far fewer unsung Canadian volunteers than planned – and yet 47 of them still saw fit to pocket one of the suddenly rare medals rather than give them to a deserving member of the public.

It should be noted that about 20 senators are refusing to play the medal game. If anyone deserves an award, it's them. As Mr. Wells himself said, "It's the small things that people do that make Canada great."