Jury and Call for Submissions Announced for $50,000 Donner Prize

TORONTO, Sept. 26, 2013 /CNW/ - Allan Gotlieb, Chairman of the Donner Canadian Foundation, today announced the official Call for Submissions for the sixteenth annual Donner Prize, the award for best book on public policy by a Canadian. The winner will receive $50,000, and shortlisted titles will take home $7,500. The prize encourages and celebrates excellence in public policy writing by Canadians, on topics of great importance to Canadians.

Mr. Gotlieb also announced this year's prize jury, who are tasked with selecting the shortlist and the eventual winner of the Donner Prize. "It is my pleasure to see the return of four of last year's distinguished jurors, as well as to welcome Dr. Peter George to the jury for the 2013 Donner Prize," said Gotlieb.

Recipient of the Order of Canada, Dr. Peter George was President and Vice-Chancellor of McMaster University for 15 years, from 1995 until his retirement in 2010, leading McMaster's academic and scholarly development, and served as the president of the Council of Ontario Universities from 1991 to 1995. He was recently appointed Senior Advisor to the Director, the United Nations University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

The Honourable Anne McLellan will return as this year's jury Chair. McLellan 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.  She is former 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.

Also returning to the jury are Marcel Boyer, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the Université de Montréal; Jennifer A. Jeffs, President of the Canadian International Council; and Denis Stairs, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Dalhousie University.

The Donner Canadian Foundation, one of Canada's largest foundations, created the prize to encourage increased research on public policy in Canada and to promote the discussion of policy issues in the public arena.  In giving this annual award, the Foundation seeks not only to broaden policy debate, but also increase general awareness of the importance of policy discourse. The 2012 prize went to Jeffrey Simpson for Chronic Condition: Why Canada's Health Care System Needs to be Dragged into the 21^st Century.

"Winning the Donner Prize meant a lot to me, because the jury was composed of outstanding individuals. To be recognized by such a group was a high honour," said Simpson.

Books submitted for the 2013 prize should focus on public policy issues - regional, national, or international - that have clear implications and relevance for Canada, 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 2013 prize, books that are written by Canadians in either English or French, between January 1, and December 31, 2013, are eligible.  See www.DonnerBookPrize.com for complete rules regarding eligibility and submission procedures.

The $50,000 Donner Prize for 2012 was awarded to Chronic Condition: Why Canada's Health Care System Needs to be Dragged into the 21^st Century by Jeffrey Simpson (Allen Lane Canada). The $7,500 shortlisted titles were: Santé: l'heure des choix Claude Castonguay (Les Éditions du Boréal); Hunger in the Balance: The New Politics of International Food Aid by Jennifer Clapp (Cornell University Press), and Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark: The West Versus the Rest Since Confederation by Mary Janigan (Knopf Canada).

The deadline for submissions for this year's prize is November 30, 2013. The shortlist will be announced in late March 2014, and the winner will be proclaimed at a gala dinner in Toronto on April 29, 2014.

SOURCE: Donner Canadian Foundation

Sherry Naylor, Prize Manager 
Phone: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
www.donnerbookprize.com