THE SEVENTH
ANNUAL DONNER PRIZE CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
JIM DINNING JOINS 2004 JURY
TORONTO,
October 5, 2004 -
Allan Gotlieb, Chairman
of the Donner Canadian Foundation, today announced the
official Call for Submissions for the seventh annual
Donner Prize and welcomed new jury member, Jim
Dinning. "Mr. Dinning is a business leader with a
distinguished political career," said Mr. Gotlieb, "we
will benefit greatly from his insights combining
private and public sector perspectives."
The Donner Canadian
Foundation, one of Canada's largest foundations,
created the prize to encourage increased research into
public policy in Canada and to promote the discussion
of policy issues in the public arena. The winner of
the Donner Prize, the award for best book on Canadian
public policy, will receive $35,000, with $5,000 being
awarded to the other shortlisted titles (to a maximum
of five titles). In giving this annual award, the
Foundation seeks to not only broaden policy debate,
but also to increase general awareness of the
importance of policy discourse.
Books submitted for the
prize should focus on Canadian public policy issues,
for example: regulatory and legal reform, public
finance, the environment, urban affairs, health care,
education reform and social policy. Submissions must
be written by Canadian citizens, but they may be
published by non-Canadian publishing houses, so long
as the books have implications for Canada. For the
2004 prize, books that are written by Canadians in
either English or French, between January 1, and
December 31, 2004, are eligible.
The $35,000 Donner
Prize for 2003 was awarded to Michael Adams for his
book Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the
Myth of Converging Values (Penguin Canada). The $5,000
shortlisted titles were Hidden Agendas: How
Journalists Influence the News by Lydia Miljan and
Barry Cooper (UBC Press), Misplaced Distrust: Policy
Networks and the Environment in France, the United
States, and Canada by Éric Montpetit (UBC Press) and
The Canadian Senate in Bicameral Perspective by David
E. Smith (University of Toronto Press).
The jury for the 2004
Donner Prize is a distinguished group of academics and
business people from across Canada. The jury will
again be chaired by Grant Reuber, Senior Advisor and
Director, Sussex Circle; Senior Fellow, C.D. Howe
Institute; former Chairman, Canada Deposit Insurance
Corporation; former President and Chief Operating
Officer and later Deputy Chairman, Bank of Montreal;
former Deputy Minister of Finance for Canada. His
fellow jurors are Claude E. Forget, former Minister of
Health for the Quebec government and former Chairman
of the Commission of Enquiry on Unemployment
Insurance; Donald S. Macdonald, Senior Advisor, Public
Policy at Lang Michener; former Minister of National
Defence, Finance and Energy, Mines and Resources;
former Chairman, Royal Commission on Economic Union
(the Macdonald Commission); former Canadian High
Commissioner to Great Britain and Northern Ireland and
Elizabeth Parr-Johnston, Consultant and former
President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of New
Brunswick and of Mount St. Vincent University.
Joining the jury this
year is Jim Dinning, Executive Vice-President
of TransAlta Corporation, Canada's largest
investor-owned generator and marketer of electricity.
Prior to joining TransAlta in 1997, Mr. Dinning held
several key positions during 11 years as a member of
the legislative assembly in Alberta. Of note is his
service as provincial treasurer for Alberta from 1992
to 1997. He also served as Minister of Education
(1988-92) and Minister of Community and Occupational
Health (1986-88).
The deadline for
submissions for this year's prize is November 30. A
shortlist will be announced late March 2005, and the
winner will be proclaimed at a gala dinner in Toronto
in April 2005.
For further information
please contact:
Sherry Naylor
Meisner Publicity (Toronto)
Phone: (416) 368-8253
Fax: (416) 363-1448
$35,000 DONNER PRIZE WINNER ANNOUNCED
MICHAEL ADAMS FINDS A GROWING CULTURAL GAP BETWEEN
CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES
TORONTO, Thursday
April 29, 2004 -
The winner of the prestigious Donner Prize, the
award for best book on Canadian public policy was
announced this evening by Allan Gotlieb, Chairman of
the Donner Canadian Foundation, at an awards dinner at
the Art Gallery of Ontario. Newly increased to
$35,000, the 2003 award marks the sixth anniversary of
this distinguished prize.
The $35,000 Donner
Prize was awarded to Michael Adams for his book
FIRE AND ICE: The United States, Canada and the Myth
of Converging Values, published by Penguin Canada.
Described by the Donner jury as "an outstanding work
that deserves pride of first place," Adams' book draws
upon a decade of Environics research performed on both
sides of the border, and reveals that, far from
drawing together, Canada and the United States are
instead diverging in significant ways.
"Thought-provoking and
well written, FIRE AND ICE addresses a critical
issue that underlies many current policy arguments,"
said jury Chairman Grant Reuber. He went on to say,
"Adams' research challenges conventional views and
will be widely used by those who make policy decisions
- his research is key to understanding how our fellow
citizens perceive the world around them."
FIRE AND ICE
asks, can Canada survive and prosper as a distinct
society in an era of globalization? Adams challenges
the myth of inevitability - the convergence of
Canadian views towards those of Americans as a result
of American mass culture, free trade, and increased
economic integration - and reflects on why Canadian
and American values, which tended to converge in the
early twentieth century, have more recently begun to
move further apart. Adams believes that our Canadian
way of life is not doomed to extinction and that "a
Canadian way of living and thinking will endure well
into the future."
Michael Adams is
the president of the Environics group of research and
communications consulting companies and author of the
bestseller Sex in the Snow: Canadian Social Values at
the End of the Millennium.
The other nominees,
which received $5,000 each, were: HIDDEN AGENDAS:
How Journalists Influence the News by Lydia Miljan
and Barry Cooper (UBC Press); MISPLACED DISTRUST:
Policy Networks and the Environment in France, the
United States, and Canada by Éric Montpetit (UBC
Press); and THE CANADIAN SENATE IN BICAMERAL
PERSPECTIVE by David E. Smith (University of
Toronto Press).
The winner was chosen
from 60 submissions and a shortlist of four, by a
five-member jury: Grant Reuber (Chairman),
Senior Advisor and Director, Sussex Circle; Paul
Boothe, Professor and Director of the Institute
for Public Economics at the University of Alberta;
Claude E. Forget, Consultant and former Minister
of Health for the Quebec government; Donald S.
Macdonald, Senior Advisor, Public Policy at Lang
Michener; former Minister of National Defence, Finance
and Energy, Mines and Resources; Elizabeth
Parr-Johnston, Consultant and former President of
the University of New Brunswick.
Last year's winner of
the $25,000 Donner Prize was John F. Helliwell for his
thoughtful and provocative book GLOBALIZATION AND
WELL-BEING published by UBC Press.
The call for
submissions for the 2004/2005 prize will go out in
September 2004.
For further information
please contact:
Sherry Naylor
Meisner Publicity (Toronto)
Phone: (416) 368-8253
Fax: (416) 363-1448
SIXTH ANNUAL DONNER PRIZE SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED
$35,000 winner to be chosen from shortlist of four
TORONTO, MARCH 30, 2004 -
Four
finalists for the 2003/2004 Donner Prize, the award
for best book on Canadian public policy, were
announced today by Allan Gotlieb, Chairman of the
Donner Canadian Foundation. Mr. Gotlieb said, "In
recognition of the importance of public policy
analysis and writing, the Foundation has increased the
amount awarded to the winner to $35,000 and will award
the other shortlisted titles $5,000 each. By doing
this, we hope to galvanize writers to continue
producing thought-provoking and inspiring works that
clarify Canada's social and economic challenges and
offer creative solutions."
The
shortlisted books were chosen from a field of 60
submissions with topics ranging from the Canadian
Senate to Canada's involvement in foreign wars, from
cross-border issues to police procedure, and
aboriginal affairs to the influence of the media. The
four finalists were chosen because they met the high
standards set by the Donner Prize jury - engaging
writing, clear arguments, meticulous research and
substantive conclusions.
Jury
Chairman Grant Reuber remarked, "Although we received
fewer submissions this year, we feel that each of
these shortlisted titles shines a penetrating light on
issues that need to be brought to the attention of a
larger public. These titles ask the 'big questions'
and suggest inventive alternatives to perennial
problems. As a jury, we've chosen four exceptional
books that deserve to be read by Canadians who care
about their country and want to increase their level
of involvement."
The winner
of the $35,000 Donner Prize will be announced at an
awards ceremony in Toronto on Thursday, April 29,
2004.
--
Fire
and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of
Converging Values
Michael Adams (Penguin Canada)
--
Hidden
Agendas: How Journalists Influence the News
Lydia Miljan & Barry Cooper (UBC Press)
--
Misplaced Distrust: Policy Networks and the
Environment in France, the United States, and Canada
Éric Montpetit (UBC Press)
--
The
Canadian Senate in Bicameral Perspective
David E. Smith (University of Toronto Press)
--
THE 2003/2004 DONNER PRIZE SHORTLIST
Fire
and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of
Converging Values
by Michael Adams (Penguin Canada)
Can Canada
survive and prosper as a distinct society in an era of
globalization and technological change, or are we
drifting inevitably towards a greater political and
philosophical alliance with the United States? Fire
and Ice challenges the myth of inevitability and
concludes, not only are our preconceptions incorrect,
but that values in the two nations are actually
diverging. Adams has written an outstanding book that
addresses a critical issue underlying many current
policy arguments.
Michael Adams is the president of the
Environics group of research and communications
consulting companies and author of the bestseller
Sex in the Snow: Canadian Social Values at the End of
the Millennium.
--
Hidden
Agendas: How Journalists Influence the News
by Lydia Miljan & Barry Cooper (UBC Press)
Whether
it's television, newspapers, or radio, most Canadians
rely heavily on these news sources to not only bring
them the news, but to shape their opinions about
critical issues and to form images of people and
places making the headlines. Skillfully written,
Hidden Agendas is an exceptional book on an important
subject. The authors carefully examine how the
attitudes of journalists on issues such as the
economy, social reform, and national unity are
reflected in the way the news is reported and how
their political ideology differs from that of the
general population.
Lydia Miljan is a professor of political
science at the University of Windsor, Senior Fellow of
the Fraser Institute, and former Director of both the
Alberta Initiative of The Fraser Institute and the
National Media Archive. Barry Cooper is
a professor of political science at the University of
Calgary and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada,
of the Institute for Health Economics, and of the
Centre for Military and Strategic Studies.
--
Misplaced Distrust: Policy Networks and the
Environment in France, the United States, and Canada
by Éric Montpetit (UBC Press)
Can
governments make good public policy? Citizens of
industrialized countries largely share a sense that
national and international governance is inadequate
and believe governments are not only incapable of
making the right policy decisions, but the entire
network responsible for policy choices is
untrustworthy. A first-class work, Misplaced Distrust
is a ground-breaking study of the difficulties of
policy-making on the subject of agriculture and its
impact on the environment in Canada, the United States
and France.
Éric
Montpetit is with the Department of Political
Science at the Université de Montréal.
--
The
Canadian Senate in Bicameral Perspective
by David E. Smith (University of Toronto Press)
Elegantly
written and carefully researched, The Canadian
Senate in Bicameral Perspective is the first
scholarly study of the Senate in over a quarter
century, and the first analysis of the upper house as
one chamber of a bicameral legislature. In this
in-depth analysis, Smith uses a detailed comparison of
upper houses in other countries to examine criticisms
and proposed improvements to the Canadian Senate. He
sheds light on the Senate's role as a political
institution and argues for a renewed investigation
into its future. It is a definitive work on a timely
subject and will likely become a standard reference.
David E. Smith is a professor in the
Department of Political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan.
--
For
further information please contact:
Sherry Naylor
Meisner Publicity (Toronto)
Phone: (416) 368-8253
Fax: (416) 363-1448
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