Former Canada Post head Andre Ouellet was the big winner in the annual Teddies waste awards handed out by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Tuesday.

Mr. Ouellet was presented with a golden pig and a lifetime achievement award for "betraying the trust of Canadians with shady backroom deals, partisan dealmaking and for riding the government gravy train," by John Williamson, the CTF federal director, in a statement.

The one that got my attention, though, was Lucie McClung, of Corrections Canada. She received a Teddy for her "spa days" and other ill-conceived spending ideas.

Lucie McClung, head of the Canadian prison system, won the federal award for collecting $142,000 in travel expenses between 2001 and 2003 while, in Williamson's words "felons are running Canada's prison system."

From last summer:

Word of an August 21st spa day offered to all inmates at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario was leaked by one of the prison staff last weekend.

Citing an anonymous source, a report published in Saturday's National Post suggested the prison's inmates had indulged in a "luxurious spa day" during which they "had their colours done" before sipping tea from fine china and listening to a harpist's serenade.

Something tells me that Mrs. McClung wasn't as gracious accepting her Teddy as Halle Berry was about accepting her Razzie.