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.
2001 Winner
IMMIGRATION ET DIVERSITÉ À L’ÉCOLE: le débat québécois dans une perspective comparative
Marie McAndrew
(Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal)
MUCH PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE OVER THE LAST THIRTY YEARS in mainstreaming immigrants and accommodating ethnic and cultural diversity. Nonetheless, these issues remain highly challenging for Quebec’s schools. Drawing from Canadian and international experience and research in the field, this book offers a review of the issues and past attempts at addressing them. Concise, jargon-free and elegantly written, Mc Andrew makes judicious evaluations and leads the reader to sensible conclusions and alternative approaches.
Runners – up
ON KIDDIE PORN: Sexual Representation, Free Speech and the Robin Sharpe Case
Stan Persky and John Dixon
(New Star Books)
WHEN HE COULD FIND NO LAWYER TO TAKE HIS CASE, Robin Sharpe conducted his own defence against the charges he faced under Canada’s child pornography law. On Kiddie Porn traces the legal developments in this case, which made headlines and history as it succeeded in having the law declared unconstitutional as violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The authors have done an excellent job of setting out the issue in the context of individual rights versus the need for protection of children.
Most FAvored Nation: Building a Framework for Smart Economic Policy
Jack M. Mintz
(C.D. Howe Institute)
After two decades in a fiscal straitjacket, Canadian governments have entered an era of budget surpluses. Canadian politicians no longer have to face constant pressure to cut government spending or raise taxes. Based on extensive research, Most Favored Nation provides a blueprint for Canada to overcome its present economic drift and become one of the leading economies in the world in terms of level and growth of national income.
THE POLITICS OF TAXATION IN CANADA
Geoffrey Hale
(Broadview Press)
TAXATION IS, ARGUABLY, THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT activity of government. The act of balancing government budgets after years of chronic deficits has reopened public debates over tax levels, the size of government and proposals for tax reform. The Politics of Taxation in Canada explains the factors that have shaped the evolution of Canada’s tax system since the 1960s and the issues that are likely to challenge governments in coming years in a well-written, highly informative and authoritative manner.
THE SUPREME COURT ON TRIAL: Judicial Activism or Democratic Dialogue
Kent Roach
(Irwin Law)
THE SUPREME COURT OF CANADA HAS BEEN ACCUSED of allowing criminals to go free; of permitting tobacco companies to advertise; of being too sympathetic to Aboriginal people; and of usurping democracy on abortion and gay rights. In a clear, engaging, and thought-provoking manner, Roach strips away the rhetoric that has characterized much of the debate over judicial activism and provides unique insights into the work of the Court.
PULLING AGAINST GRAVITY: Economic Development in New Brunswick During the McKenna Years
Donald J. Savoie
(IRPP)
FRANK MCKENNA CAPTAINED NEW BRUNSWICK through difficult economic times. The ten-year course he set is widely perceived as having transformed the maritime province. In Pulling Against Gravity, Donald J. Savoie takes an objective look at the New Brunswick of 1987, when McKenna became premier, and the New Brunswick of 1997 and addresses the issues of today’s Atlantic provinces in a carefully researched, well-written and effective manner.
THE FRIENDLY DICTATORSHIP
Jeffrey Simpson
(McClelland & Stewart)
IS CANADA A DICTATORSHIP – albeit a friendly dictatorship? Jeffrey Simpson argues that the presence of partisan parliamentary debate should not obscure the fact that, with the Liberal party’s re-election to a third majority government, Canada is in danger of becoming a de facto one-party state. The Friendly Dictatorship is clearly written and a masterful analysis of the ills that have beset Canadian politics.
2001 Donner Jury
Grant L. Reuber
Chair
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; former Vice-President (academic), Provost and later Chancellor of the University of Western Ontario.
Paul Boothe
Professor and Director of the Institute for Public Economics at the University of Alberta; former Deputy Minister for the Province of Saskatchewan.
Claude E. Forget
Consultant and former Minister of Health for the Quebec government; former Chairman of the Commission of Enquiry on Unemployment Insurance.
Elizabeth Parr-Johnston
Consultant and former President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of New Brunswick.
John G. Richards
Professor at the Faculty of Business at Simon Fraser University; Scholar-in-Residence at the C.D. Howe Institute.