Had kinda hoped my own Three Weeks in Quebec City might make this last available 2015 shortlist. But this award should be for political writing, not historical writing. It's hard to define the difference, and I think the Cohen has sometimes wandered pretty from its wheelhouse on the theory that everything is political. With that view, I shouldn't complain! This is a good list.
- Greg Donaghy for Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr.
- Norman Hillmer for O.D. Skelton: A Portrait of Canadian Ambition
- John Ibbitson for Stephen Harper
- Andrew Nikiforuk for Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry
- Sheila Watt-Cloutier for The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic, and the Whole Planet
Meanwhile, there is a thing called the Ontario Legislative Speaker's Book Prize, a fairly recent award which seems to be the brainchild of the current Speaker Dave Levac, a former teacher. It salutes books about Ontario and seems to mean nonfiction. That award is next Monday, and the list this year has lots of historians. And another book of mine actually is in the running. The shortlist (if you call ten a short list).
- Marilyn Churley, Shameless: The Fight for Adoption Disclosure and the Search for my Son
- Bill Freeman, The New Urban Agenda: The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area
- Rodney Haddow, Comparing Quebec and Ontario: Political Economy and Public Policy at the Turn of the Millennium
- Craig Heron, Lunch-Bucket Lives: Remaking the Workers' City
- John Lorinc, Michael McClelland, Ellen Scheinberg, Tatum Taylor (Editors), The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood
- Edward Metatawabin, Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History
- Christopher Moore, The Court of Appeal for Ontario: Defining the Right of Appeal, 1792-2013
- Cecelia Morgan, Creating Colonial Pasts: History, Memory and Commemoration in Southern Ontario, 1860-1980
- Francoise Noel, Nipissing: Historic Waterway, Wilderness Playground
- Greg Sorbara, The Battlefield of Ontario Politics: An Autobiography
