Jury and Call For Submissions announced for $35,000 2009 Donner Prize

The Honourable A. Anne McLellan to chair jury

TORONTO , Oct. 15 /CNW/ - Allan Gotlieb, Chairman of the Donner Canadian Foundation, today announced the official Call for Submissions and Jury for the twelfth annual Donner Prize. In a statement released in Toronto , he says, "The Donner Canadian Foundation is once again looking for the best books on Canadian public policy. Last year's shortlisted books certainly generated a great deal of discussion on a number of topical, provocative and controversial subjects. We are eagerly waiting to see what the authors have in store for us this year, and who will eventually take home the $35,000 prize."

Mr. Gotlieb also announced this year's Prize Jury. "It is my pleasure to announce that the Honourable Anne McLellan will take the helm as this year's jury chair. We are also pleased to welcome two new jurors: Wendy Dobson and Robert Lacroix , who will join our returning jurors Peter Harder and Denis Stairs ."

Regarding her new role as jury chair, Anne McLellan said, "The Donner Prize acknowledges the important work being done by outstanding Canadians in areas of critical public policy. I am proud to be chairing the jury this year and look forward to the submissions." McLellan has served on the Donner Prize jury for the past two years. She joined Bennett Jones LLP after a distinguished career in federal politics, where she served four terms as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre from 1993-2006. During her political career McLellan was Deputy Prime Minister of Canada , Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Minister of Health, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister of Natural Resources and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians.

Dr. Wendy Dobson is Co-director of the Institute for International Business in the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. She is a former Associate Deputy Minister of Finance and a former President of the C.D. Howe Institute. Robert Lacroix is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Economics and former rector (1998-2005) of the Université de Montréal. He also served at the Université as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and President and Executive Director of CIRANO (Centre for Interuniversity Research and Analysis on Organizations).

Returning to the jury are Peter Harder , Senior Policy Advisor to Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP and former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Harder has been at the centre of government decision making for over thirty years and was the longest serving Deputy Minister in the Government of Canada ; and Denis Stairs , Professor Emeritus in Political Science at Dalhousie University. A past-President of the Canadian Political Science Association and founding Director of the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies

The Donner Canadian Foundation, one of Canada's largest foundations, created the prize to encourage increased research into public policy in Canada and to promote the discussion of policy issues in the public arena. The winner of the Donner Prize, the award for best book on Canadian public policy, will receive $35,000 , with $5,000 being awarded to the other shortlisted titles (to a maximum of five titles). In giving this annual award, the Foundation seeks to not only broaden policy debate, but also to increase general awareness of the importance of policy discourse. "Winning the Donner Prize was a terrific honour," said Ken Coates , winner of the 2008 Prize. "The award drew attention to our work, generated renewed interest in the subject and allowed us to reach new audiences."

Thomas Allen Publishers' Patrick Crean went on to say, "We are very proud to be the publishers of a book - Arctic Front by Ken Coates , Whitney Lackenbauer, William Morrison , and Greg Poelzer - that won Canada's premier prize for ideas and public policy, The Donner Prize. This is an important and necessary award that helps draw attention to noteworthy books of social and political import."

Books submitted for the prize should focus on Canadian public policy issues, for example: regulatory and legal reform, public finance, the environment, urban affairs, health care, and education reform. Submissions must be written by Canadian citizens, but they may be published by non-Canadian publishing houses, so long as the books have implications for Canada . For the 2009 prize, books that are written by Canadians in either English or French, between January 1 , and December 31, 2009 , are eligible. See www.DonnerBookPrize.com for complete rules regarding eligibility and submission procedures.

The $35,000 Donner Prize for 2008 was awarded to Arctic Front: Defending Canada in the Far North by Ken S. Coates, P. Whitney Lackenbauer, William R. Morrison & Greg Poelzer ( Thomas Allen Publishers). The $5,000 shortlisted titles were: Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State by Tarek Fatah (John Wiley & Sons, Canada ), Fixing the Future: How Canada's Usually Fractious Governments Worked Together to Rescue the Canada Pension Plan by Bruce Little (Rotman/University of Toronto Press Publishing), The Limits of Boundaries: Why City-regions Cannot be Self-governing by Andrew Sancton (McGill-Queen's University Press), and Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation by Frances Widdowson & Albert Howard (McGill-Queen's University Press).

The deadline for submissions for this year's prize is November 30 . A shortlist will be announced late March 2010 , and the winner will be proclaimed at a gala dinner in Toronto in April 2010 .

For further information: Sherry Naylor, MDG & Associates, Phone: [phone], E-mail: [email protected], www.donnerbookprize.com