10th ANNUAL
DONNER PRIZE WINNER ANNOUNCED
Definitive look at
House of Commons and Canada’s political system takes
home $35,000 prize.
Toronto,
Thursday, April 16th –
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 a gala awards dinner at the Carlu. This
year marks the 10th anniversary of the annual Donner
Prize.
David E. Smith
was awarded the $35,000 prize for his exceptional book
The People’s House of Commons: Theories of
Democracy in Contention,
published by University of Toronto Press. Smith’s
exacting analysis contributes greatly to our
understanding of the importance and subtleties of
Parliament and democracy, the way in which
parliamentary practices and the meaning of democracy
have changed over the years, and the major questions
of parliamentary governance confronting Canadians
today.
“I am unaware of any
other recent book that deals as effectively with the
critical public policy issue of how we govern
ourselves,” said Jury Chairman Grant Reuber. “Smith’s
scholarship is impeccable and the result of his
labours is a thorough and thoughtful review of the
House of Commons as the pre-eminent institution of
Canada’s parliamentary democracy, and of the
criticisms and concerns that have been expressed in
relation to it. This as an important book that should
be widely read by everyone interested in government in
Canada.”
Through an
examination of academic, judicial, political and legal
commentary, David E. Smith, one of Canada’s foremost
experts in the field of political science, explores
the ramifications of many of the changes currently
being proposed to Canada’s political system.
The People’s House of Commons
is a solid study of the House and considers the
competing political models and inherent tensions and
their affect on public understanding. Smith’s analysis
is detailed, reminding readers of the historical
foundations of Canadian parliamentary, constitutional
and electoral democracy –
a must read for political leaders, political
aficionados, and members of the public interested in
the future of Canada’s parliamentary system.
David E. Smith, a
professor emeritus in the Department of Political
Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, was
shortlisted for the 2003 Donner Prize for his previous
book
The Senate in a Bicameral Perspective.
The winner of the
Donner Prize was chosen from an impressive list of 69
submissions and a shortlist of five by a five-member
jury:
Grant L. Reuber
(chairman),
Claude E. Forget,
V. Peter Harder,
A. Anne McLellan
and
Denis Stairs.
The other nominated
titles, which received $5,000 each, were:
Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun
Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent
by Rodrigo Bascuñán and Christian Pearce (Random House
Canada);
Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of
Canadian Street Gangs
by Michael C. Chettleburgh (HarperCollins Publishers
Ltd.);
Fueling our Future: An Introduction to
Sustainable Energy
by Robert L. Evans (Cambridge University Press) and
The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar
by Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang (Viking Canada).
Last year’s winner of
the $35,000 Donner Prize was Eric Helleiner for his
book
Towards North American Monetary Union? The
Politics and History of Canada’s Exchange Rate Regime
(McGill-Queen’s University Press).
The call for
submissions for the 2008/2009 Donner Prize will go out
in September 2008.
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For further
information, please contact:
Sherry Naylor, Prize
Manager
Meisner, de Groot & Associates (Toronto)
Phone: (416) 368-8253
E-mail:
sherry@mdgassociates.com
www.donnerbookprize.com
10th ANNUAL
DONNER PRIZE SHORLIST ANNOUNCED
$35,000 Winner to be
chosen from shortlist of five
TORONTO, March
25, 2008 -
Street crime. Gun culture. Energy and the environment.
The House of Commons. Canada's war in Afghanistan. All
hot button issues, as well as the subjects for the
five finalists competing for the 2007/2008 Donner
Prize, the award for best book on Canadian public
policy, announced today by Allan Gotlieb, Chairman of
the Donner Canadian Foundation. "This year will be
remarkable for a number of reasons," Mr. Gotlieb said.
"We are celebrating the Donner Prize's 10th
anniversary, and we have five exceptional shortlisted
books that grapple with some of Canada's most pressing
public policy challenges. Donner-winning books of the
past have sparked and informed discussion about issues
that are important to Canadians. The Donner Canadian
Foundation is pleased to support this Prize and,
through it, the best public policy writing in the
country."
Jury Chairman Grant Reuber succinctly summarized this
year's shortlist: "As always, it is our responsibility
as a jury to find great books about issues that
Canadians think about, talk about and care about. We
feel this year's Donner Prize Shortlist meets those
criteria, with the writers venturing into public
policy issues that are both relevant and somewhat
controversial."
The Donner Prize was established in 1998 to recognize
and reward the best public policy thinking, writing
and research in Canada. The 2007/2008 Shortlist books
were chosen from an impressive field of 69
submissions. The winner of this year's Donner Prize
will be announced at an awards ceremony at The Carlu
in downtown Toronto on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. The
winner will receive $35,000, with $5,000 awarded to
the other finalists.
The 2007/2008 Donner Prize Finalists are:
Enter the
Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt
to 50 Cent
by Rodrigo Bascuñán and Christian Pearce (Random House
Canada)
Young Thugs:
Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs
by Michael C. Chettleburgh (HarperCollins Publishers
Ltd.)
Fueling Our
Future: An Introduction to Sustainable Energy
by Robert L. Evans (Cambridge University Press)
The People's
House of Commons: Theories of Democracy in Contention
by David E.
Smith (University of Toronto Press)
The Unexpected
War: Canada in Kandahar
by Janice
Gross Stein and Eugene Lang (Viking Canada)
The
2007/2008 Donner Prize Shortlist
Enter the
Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt
to 50 Cent
by Rodrigo Bascuñán and Christian Pearce (Random
House)
Enter the Babylon System is a hard-hitting
history of a multi-billion dollar industry and its
impact on our popular culture. From the factory floor
where firearms are manufactured to the halls of
government where laws take shape, to the offices of
corporate media where decisions are made to take
financial advantage of our enduring fascination with
the image of the gun, this book explores the various
forms of entertainment that bombard our senses with
the seductive allure of violence. The book is an
eye-opener and highly informative, providing a rich
insight into the nature of gun subculture.
Rodrigo
Bascuñán is
the publisher and co-owner of Pound magazine.
Although he has never been shot at, he comes from a
long line of Chileans who have.
Christian Pearce
is the editor and co-owner of Pound magazine. He
studies law in Vancouver.
--
Young Thugs:
Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs
by Michael C. Chettleburgh (HarperCollins Publishers
Ltd.)
When 15-year-old Jane Creba was caught in the
crossfire of a gang battle in downtown Toronto in
December 2005, the headlines were filled with the
story of how an "American" problem had come to
Toronto. The truth is that gangs have been around for
many years, and not just in Toronto. They are a
homegrown problem infesting cities and towns across
the country. Young Thugs exposes how gangs work
and what attracts thousands of young Canadians to them
each year, from Halifax to Winnipeg to Vancouver,
dealing clearly and informatively with a largely
ignored issue of importance. Michael C. Chettleburgh
writes in an accessible and non-condescending style
exploring a range of policy options.
Michael C.
Chettleburgh
is one of Canada's foremost authorities on youth
gangs. He has developed street-gang awareness training
programs for law enforcement agencies, is a keynote
speaker at many youth crime conferences, and a
frequent media commentator on criminal justice issues.
--
Fueling Our
Future: An Introduction to Sustainable Energy
by Robert L. Evans (Cambridge University Press)
Informing the important debate about climate change
and energy use, Fueling Our Future provides a
concise overview of current energy demands and supply
patterns. It presents a balanced view of how our
reliance on fossil fuels can be changed over time so
that we have a much more sustainable energy system in
the near future. Written in a non-technical and
accessible style, the book appeals to a wide range of
readers without scientific backgrounds. Robert L.
Evans reviews policy options in a balanced, analytical
style, and he is careful to avoid the trap of
assigning the problem's resolution to only one, or a
handful, of remedies.
Robert L. Evans
is the Director of the Clean Energy Research Center at
the University of British Columbia. He is the author
of over 140 publications and holds four U.S. patents.
--
The People's
House of Commons: Theories of Democracy in Contention
by David E. Smith (University of Toronto Press)
Through an examination of academic, judicial,
political and legal commentary, David E. Smith, one of
Canada's foremost experts in the field of political
science, explores the ramifications of many of the
changes currently being proposed to Canada's political
system. The People's House of Commons is a
solid study of the House and considers the competing
political models and inherent tensions and their
affect on public understanding. Smith's analysis is
detailed, reminding readers of the historical
foundations of Canadian parliamentary, constitutional
and electoral democracy - a must read for political
leaders, political aficionados, and members of the
public interested in the future of Canada's
parliamentary system.
David E. Smith
is a professor emeritus in the Department of Political
Studies at the University of Saskatchewan and Senior
Policy Fellow at the Saskatchewan Institute of Public
Policy.
--
The Unexpected
War: Canada in Kandahar
by Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang (Viking Canada)
As Canadian soldiers continue to fight an insurgency
unlike any they have encountered before and the
country struggles to understand its role both in the
war and within the international community's effort to
aid Afghanistan, The Unexpected War provides
not only a revelatory narrative but an informed
assessment of Canada's descent into the war. Using
gripping language, the book confronts the boiling
debate over the appropriate role for Canada, its
military and its foreign policy in global security
measures. This is a book that is hard to put down:
clearly written, fast-paced and enormously
informative.
Janice Gross
Stein is the
Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the
Department of Political Science and the Director of
the Munk Centre for International Studies at the
University of Toronto. Eugene Lang
is a public policy consultant and writer, and served
as chief of staff to two ministers of national defense
from 2002 to 2006.
- 30 -
For further information, please contact:
Sherry Naylor, Prize Manager
Meisner, de Groot & Associates (Toronto)
Phone: (416) 368-8253
E-mail:
sherry@mdgassociates.com
www.donnerbookprize.com
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