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.
2002 Winner
GLOBALIZATION AND WELL-BEING
John F. Helliwell
(UBC Press)
RESEARCHERS AND DECISION MAKERS ARE TAKING A NEW LOOK at public policies to find broader grounds for assessing their economic and social impacts on individuals, families, communities and nations. Provocative, authoritative and challenging, Globalization and Well-Being introduces this new research on social capital and well-being and applies it to key issues facing individuals and governments in the age of globalization. Throughout the book, Helliwell emphasizes well-being as an explicit focus for research and for public policies.
Runners – up
TAKEN BY STORM: Troubled Science, Policy and Politics of Global Warming
Christopher Essex and Ross McKitrick
(Key Porter Books)
IS GLOBAL WARMING THE GREATEST THREAT FACING HUMANITY TODAY? The physical phenomena in climate and weather change are among the most complex in nature, and science can say very little about what will happen to our environment in the future. Yet a large international policy framework has been built precisely on the assumption that we know what is happening and how to control it. A well-crafted, fascinating read, Taken by Storm explains the science of climate change and deconstructs the widespread myth of global warming.
WHO GETS IN: What’s Wrong with Canada’s Immigration Program – and How to Fix It
Daniel Stoffman
(Macfarlane Walter & Ross)
THE TERRORISM OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, TURNED AN INTENSE SPOTLIGHT on Canada’s lax immigration and refugee programs. Who Gets In is a timely and important exploration of Canada’s immigration policy – a subject that has long been at the centre of controversy. Stoffman supports responsible immigration and a compassionate refugee program, but maintains that we have neither. Tightly argued, well-researched, opinionated and combative, Stoffman’s book debunks a host of myths upon which Canadian’s immigration policy is based.
LIQUID ASSETS: Privatizing and Regulating Canada’s Water Utilities
Elizabeth Brubaker
(University of Toronto Centre for Public Management)
MORE THAN TWO YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE contaminated water killed seven people and made 2,300 ill in Walkerton, Ontario. “People widely referred to Walkerton as a wake-up call, but many utilities and regulators are still sleeping,” says Brubaker. Liquid Assets is a first-class book on an important subject. Intriguing, well-written and meticulously documented, the author provides an authoritative and readable study of privatization of water and waste-water facilities around the world.
A TRADING NATION: Canadian Trade Policy from Colonialism to Globalization
Michael Hart
(UBC Press)
CANADA HAS ALWAYS BEEN A TRADING NATION. From the early days of fur and fish to the present, when a remarkable ninety percent of our gross national product is attributable to exports and imports, Canadians have relied on international trade to bolster our economy. A Trading Nation is a brilliantly constructed overview and analysis of the historical foundations of modern Canadian trade policy – a remarkable economic history seen from the all-important perspective of international and Canadian trade policies.
THE COST OF CLIMATE POLICY
Mark Jaccard, John Nyboer and Bryn Sadownik
(UBC Press)
REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IS A MAJOR environmental challenge facing Canada and the world, but how much will this cost? What will it mean on a personal, business or community level? The Cost of Climate Policy is a comprehensive look at these pressing issues. As indispensable as this book will be to policy analysts, it is also an important primer for a wider range of readers interested in the economic implications of climate change.
JUSTICE BEHIND THE WALLS: Human Rights in Canadian Prisons
Michael Jackson
(Douglas & McIntyre)
JUSTICE BEHIND THE WALLS IS A COMPELLING, profoundly unsettling look at the state of justice – and injustice – in our prisons. At a time when the issue of human rights in prison is dangerously close to being eclipsed by rising waves of fear about public safety, Michael Jackson takes us beyond the stereotypes of the keeper and the kept. Passionate, detailed and written by a highly knowledgeable and committed expert, this book brings to the agenda of public and legal debate a remedial toolbox with the potential to enhance Canada’s claim as an international model for a just society.
2002 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.