2006

$35,000 WINNER

Towards North American Monetary Union? The Politics and History of Canada's Exchange Rate Regime
by Eric Helleiner (McGill-Queen's University Press)

Many believe that Canada's deepening economic integration with the United States and the worldwide trend towards currency blocs will eventually lead to a North American monetary union. In this excellent analysis of Canadian exchange rate politics, Eric Helleiner challenges this view and finds little support in the U.S. for the concessions that would be necessary to make a North American monetary union palatable in Canada. Towards North American Monetary Union? is a fascinating book that explores Canada's unusually strong commitment throughout the twentieth century to a floating exchange rate for its national currency - a commitment that Helleiner argues is likely to endure.

Eric Helleiner is CIGI Chair in International Governance in the Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo. He is the author of several books, including States and the Re-emergence of Global Finance and The Making of National Money: Territorial Currencies in Historical Perspective.

RUNNERS-UP
$5,000 EACH

Dreamland: How Canada's Pretend Foreign Policy Has Undermined Sovereignty
by Roy Rempel (Breakout Educational Network)

In Dreamland, Roy Rempel argues that the past decade has been marked by an ideological and domestically driven foreign policy agenda that has lost sight of the national interest. As a consequence, Canada's policy options are narrowing, national sovereignty is eroding, and the country risks evolving into a protectorate of the United States. Dreamland is a provocative and bracing book that analyzes how Canada's foreign policy has subverted the myths that Canadians believe about themselves and their place in the world. It provides not only a well-aimed barrage of criticism of Canadian foreign policy in recent times, but also a well-reasoned plan for an alternative approach.

Roy Rempel taught international relations for four years at Memorial University in Newfoundland. He was also a foreign and defence policy advisor on Parliament Hill and currently works as a policy advisor in the minister's office for the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

Visiting Grandchildren: Economic Development in the Maritimes
by Donald J. Savoie (University of Toronto Press)

In Visiting Grandchildren, esteemed policy analyst and scholar Donald J. Savoie explores how Canadian economic policies have served to exclude the Maritime provinces from the wealth enjoyed in many other parts of the country, especially southern Ontario, and calls for a radical new approach to how Canadian governments determine policies that affect different regions. Well-written and comprehensive, Visiting Grandchildren looks to history, accidents of geography, and to the workings of national political and administrative institutions to explain the relative underdevelopment of the Maritime provinces. Savoie's work serves as the blueprint for a new way of envisioning the Maritime region.

Donald J. Savoie holds a Canada Research Chair in Public Administration and Governance at l'Université de Moncton. Two of his previous books were shortlisted for the Donner Prize: Governing from the Centre (2000) and Pulling Against Gravity: Economic Development in New Brunswick (2001).