Here’s a look back at past winners and the books that made that year’s shortlist. You’ll also find our Jury from each award season.
1998 Winner
FROM HEARTLAND TO NORTH AMERICAN REGION STATE: THE SOCIAL, FISCAL AND FEDERAL EVOLUTION OF ONTARIO
Thomas Courchene with Colin Telmer
(Centre for Management, University of Toronto)
THIS IS A HIGHLY READABLE AND SIGNIFICANT interpretative essay on the social, fiscal and federal evolution of Ontario during the past half century. Its analysis provides refreshing new insight into the role of Ontario in the development of the Canadian federation, and not only asks the question “Is Ontario still Canada’s heartland?” but “Should it be?”
Runners – up
THE REFORMATION OF CANADA’S SCHOOLS: BREAKING THE BARRIERS TO PARENTAL CARE
Mark Holmes
(McGill-Queen’s University Press)
A HIGHLY INSTRUCTIVE STUDY, INFUSED WITH THE PERSONAL insight gained from Holmes’ years of experience as an educator, The Reformation of Canada’s Schools provides a much-needed look at the problems plaguing the educational system in Canada. Challenging the one-size-fits-all approach to educational policy, Holmes argues that we need a broad range of schools to accommodate the wishes of parents and the goals of a pluralist society.
GLOBALIZATION AND THE MEANING OF CANADIAN LIFE
William Watson
(University of Toronto Press)
THIS ENGAGING BOOK MAKES AN IMPORTANT, timely and valuable contribution to a question that confronts all Canadians: How do we remain Canadian in a world where borders are rapidly disappearing and governments are increasingly constrained in their ability to pursue independent policies? The answer, according to Watson, lies in Canadians remaining free to choose what is best for us and not simply “what those south of us are not choosing.
STRAIGHT TALK: SPEECHES AND WRITINGS ON CANADIAN UNITY
Stéphane Dion
(McGill-Queen’s University Press)
THIS IS AN ELEGANT COLLECTION OF THE Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs’ speeches from 1996 to 1998 advocating and setting out the conditions for a reconciliation of Quebec nationalism with a highly decentralized and multi-national Canadian state. This book is an intelligent, sophisticated case for national unity and highlights the policies Ottawa should adopt to sustain it.
WHITE MAN’S LAW: NATIVE PEOPLE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY CANADIAN JURISPRUDENCE
Sidney L. Harring
(The Osgoode Society / University of Toronto Press)
THIS BOOK, A MASTERPIECE OF HISTORICAL ANALYSIS, is representative of a new way of thinking about Native history – one that declares that the history is in the details of how Canada’s Native people were treated. The relevance of its topic is reflected in daily headlines, for many of today’s unresolved land claims issues are rooted in the legal system’s failures to address Native concerns in the last century.
LAMENT FOR AN OCEAN: THE COLLAPSE OF THE ATLANTIC COD FISHERY: A TRUE CRIME STORY
Michael Harris
(McClelland & Stewart)
THE WORLD-WIDE DISTRIBUTION OF PROTEIN RESOURCES is a pressing policy issue – even the Navy is now being designed for the protection of ocean resources. This account of the demise of the Atlantic cod fishery over the last two decades takes an objective position in a highly politicized area and opens the policy debate surrounding it to a wide audience.
THE THREE QUESTIONS: PROSPERITY AND THE PUBLIC GOOD
C. Bob Rae
(Penguin Books Canada)
STRUCTURING HIS THOUGHTS ON RABBI HILLEL’S famous questions, Rae discusses the need for policy to combine self-interest, generosity, and action in coping with change. A unique political testament, it explores with clarity and exceptional insight the roles of government, business, communities and individuals in the new economic and political reality of Canada.
TALK AND LOG: WILDERNESS POLITICS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
Jeremy Wilson
(UBC Press)
TALK AND LOG ILLUMINATES THE FORCES behind the controversies that have divided British Columbians and attracted the attention of Canadians for more than three decades. This comprehensive account of the interplay of forces that have shaped BC’s forest policy is more widely applicable because it reveals how increasing knowledge influences the formulation of policy over time.
1998 Donner Jury
Grant L. Reuber
Chair
Former chairman, Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation; former Vice-President (academic), Provost, and later Chancellor of the University of Western Ontario; Deputy Minister of Finance for Canada 1979-80.
David J. Bercuson
Director, Strategic Studies Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.
Pierre Lortie
President and Chief Operating Officer, Bombardier Transportation.
John G. Richards
Professor at the Faculty of Business at Simon Fraser University; Scholar-in-Residence at the C.D. Howe Institute.
Jennifer Smith
Associate Professor of Political Science, Dalhousie University, NS.