2007 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

2007 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize Finalists

Clive Doucet
Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual
New Society Publishers

An insider’s perspective into the modern world’s explosive urban growth and why governing action seems paralyzed, Urban Meltdown travels from Ottawa to New Orleans, chronicling the clogged roads and air quality warnings emblematic of political mismanagement.

CLIVE DOUCET is an urban activist, well-known journalist, best-selling author, and the first poet ever elected to Ottawa City Council. He is the author of several plays, novels, and memoirs including My Father’s Cape Breton and Notes from Exile. Doucet lives in Ottawa.

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Richard Gwyn
John A.: The Man Who Made Us; The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald, Volume One: 1815—1867
Random House Canada

The first full-scale biography of Canada’s first prime minister in more than half a century follows his family’s emigration from Scotland to Upper Canada in 1820, the birth of his political ambitions, and his presiding over the first Canada Day of the new Dominion in 1867.

RICHARD GWYN is an award-winning author and political columnist. He is a commentator for the Toronto Star on national and international affairs and a frequent contributor to television and radio programs. He is the author of two previous biographies, The Unlikely Revolutionary and The Northern Magus. Gwyn lives in Toronto.

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Andrea Mandel-Campbell
Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson
Douglas & McIntyre

A scathing cautionary tale about lost opportunities in confronting international markets, Andrea Mandel-Campbell explores the hidden challenges to Canada’s global success and the perils of continued complacency.

ANDREA MANDEL-CAMPBELL was bureau chief for London’s Financial Times in Mexico and correspondent for Business Week magazine in Argentina. For ten years she was a foreign correspondent in Latin America. She has written extensively on global competitiveness issues, including business ties between Canada and China. She lives in Toronto.

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David E. Smith
The People’s House of Commons: Theories of Democracy in Contention
University of Toronto Press

One of Canada’s foremost experts in the field of political science explores the ramifications of many of the changes proposed to Canada’s political system and examines the competing political models and tensions affecting the public's understanding of the House.

DAVID E. SMITH is a professor emeritus in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Saskatchewan and Senior Policy Fellow, Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy. He is the author of three previous books including The Invisible Crown, The Republican Option in Canada, and The Canadian Senate in Bicameral Perspective. Smith lives in Regina.

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Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang
The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar
Viking Canada

In compelling detail, this account of how Canada slipped into a war that now means mounting casualties and grim battles in Afghanistan, d raws upon interviews with key decision makers and advisors to expose the poverty of Canadian foreign policy and its flawed relations with the United States.

JANICE GROSS STEIN is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science and the director of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was awarded the Order of Canada in 2007. Her previous writing publications include Networks of Knowledge and The Cult of Efficiency. Stein lives in Toronto.

EUGENE LANG is a public policy consultant and writer. From 2002 to 2006 he served as chief of staff to two ministers of national defence. Lang is a frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, and is co-author of Turning Point: Moving Beyond Neoconservatism. He lives in Ottawa.

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