PAST WINNERS 2005

PAST WINNERS 2005


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.

2005 Winner

SUSTAINABLE FOSSIL FUELS: THE UNUSUAL SUSPECT IN THE QUEST FOR CLEAN AND ENDURING ENERGY

Sustainable Fossil Fuels: The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy

Mark Jaccard

(McGill-Queen’s University Press)

Sustainable Fossil Fuels is a formidable book on an important policy issue. While many believe we must quickly wean ourselves from fossil fuels to save the planet, Mark Jaccard argues that this view is misguided and that we have the technological capability to use fossil fuels without emitting climate-threatening greenhouse gases or other pollutants. Jaccard skillfully delivers a concise but comprehensive summary of global problems of supply of and demand for energy and a survey of the most promising options for the future.

Runners – up

RETHINKING THE WELFARE STATE: THE PROSPECTS FOR GOVERNMENT BY VOUCHER

Rethinking the Welfare State: The Prospects for Government by Voucher

Ronald J. Daniels and Michael J. Trebilcock

(Routledge)

Rethinking the Welfare State offers a timely, thought-provoking analysis of social welfare policy and explores the effectiveness of the voucher system as a solution to problematic areas in the welfare program. While evaluating vouchers and their implementation, Daniels and Trebilcock focus on major social programs such as food stamps, primary and secondary education, child-care, health care, low income housing, long-term care and pensions. A tour de force, Rethinking the Welfare State is an extremely important contribution to public policy deliberations.


THE POLITE REVOLUTION: PERFECTING THE CANADIAN DREAM

The Polite Revolution: Perfecting the Canadian Dream

John Ibbitson

(McClelland & Stewart)

In his compelling book, The Polite Revolution, John Ibbitson dismantles the old ways of thinking about Canada’s immigration, free trade, social, and defence policies. His ideas for the future of Canada are daring – a major devolution of power and dollars from the federal to the provincial level, a revamping of medicare, a refashioning of the electoral system. They amount to no less than a revolutionary plan for the creation and defence of a new national dream. The Polite Revolution is a stimulating work that will most certainly widen the circle of policy issue discussions.


SIGNPOSTS OF SUCCESS: INTERPRETING ONTARIO'S ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEST SCORES

Signposts of Success: Interpreting Ontario’s Elementary School Test Scores

David Johnson

(C.D. Howe)

In the 1996-97 academic year, Ontario introduced, to considerable controversy, standardized testing for all elementary school students to assess their progress in key subject areas. In his trailblazing book, Signposts of Success, David Johnson looks at the argument that school rankings are based, not on the school’s relative success in teaching students, but on the socio-economic characteristics of the community from which the school draws its students, and argues that other factors – that principals’ managerial talents, the quality of teaching, and the resources available to the school – also affect students’ achievement scores.


GOVERNING WITH THE CHARTER: LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL ACTIVISM AND FRAMERS' INTENT

Governing with the Charter: Legislative and Judicial Activism and Framers’ Intent

James B. Kelly

(UBC Press)

Since the introduction of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, the question of judicial power and its relationship to parliamentary democracy has been an important one. Some critics view the increased power of the Supreme Court as a direct challenge to parliament. In Governing with the Charter, James Kelly presents a detailed examination of the history, theory and practice of governing with and living under the Charter. Thoughtful and well-written, it is a challenging and serious contribution to a subject that continues to be hotly debated.

2005 Donner Jury

Grant L. Reuber

Chair

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 provost and Vice-President (Academic) of the University of Western Ontario; Officer of the Order of Canada; Fellow, Royal Society of Canada.


Claude E. Forget

Former Minister of Health for the Quebec government; former Chairman of the Commission of Enquiry on Unemployment Insurance; Officer of the Order of Canada.


George Connell

George Connell is a scientist with extensive experience in public policy. He served as president of the University of Western Ontario from 1977-1984 and the University of Toronto from 1984-1990. He served on the Medical Research Council of Canada and on the Ontario Council of Health. He was a senior advisor to the Krever Inquiry on the blood system and the O’Connor Inquiry on the Walkerton water system and is an Officer of the Order of Canada.


Denis Stairs

Dr. Stairs is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Dalhousie University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a past-President of the Canadian Political Science Association. The founding Director of the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, he was Dalhousie’s Vice President (Academic and Research) from 1988 to 1993. He is currently the Chair of the Board of Visitors of the Canadian Forces College, a Fellow of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute in Calgary, and a member of its Advisory Council, and an Officer of the Order of Canada.


David W. Strangway

Chair & CEO and Founding Director of Quest University Canada, following a 12-year tenure as President of the University of British Columbia. From 1973-1985 Dr. Strangway held a number of positions with the University of Toronto including Acting President and Vice-President. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 1998 was appointed President & CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation.