Balsillie Prize for Public Policy finalist Stephen J.A. Ward.Supplied
The four finalists for the Balsillie Prize for Public Policy include books on domestic violence, irrational politics, corporate consolidation and precious metals in a greening world.
The purse for the annual Canadian prize funded by businessman Jim Balsillie jumps $10,000 this year to $70,000 for the winner, with $7,500 (up from $5,000) going to the other finalists.
The nominated authors include Vancouver’s Vince Beiser, whose Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future is published by Riverhead Books. In its citation, the jury noted that the book “raises essential considerations and uncomfortable questions for policymakers and citizens alike,” and that it invites them to walk a tightrope, “balancing the need to minimize our dependencies and reduce our environmental footprint, while still achieving our green goals.”
The three-person jury was composed of author and physician Samantha Nutt, policy expert Taki Sarantakis and digital strategist Scott Young. They selected this year’s shortlist from 58 titles representing 35 Canadian publishing imprints. The winner will be announced on Nov. 25, at a live event presented by the Writers’ Trust in Toronto.
Kingston author Pamela Cross was nominated for And Sometimes They Kill You: Confronting the Epidemic of Intimate Partner Violence, published by Between the Lines. The jury described the book as a “devastating” investigation into how and why domestic violence remains far too prevalent, how to fix it and what must urgently change: “That it is not an easy read makes Cross’s book all the more necessary and timely.”
Fredericton’s Stephen J.A. Ward made the shortlist for Irrational Publics and the Fate of Democracy, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. The book asks whether it feels like world politics have become more passionate yet less rational. The jury said the author’s “insightful exploration of the interaction between populations and environments provides readers an understanding of how we got here, where we are going, and how to make things better before they get worse.”
The Balsillie Prize was established in 2021 by its namesake philanthropist, who felt Canada was snoozing and losing when it came to public policy discourse.
“We fell asleep on updating our public policy thinking over the last 30 years,” the former chairman and co-chief executive officer of Research In Motion (which became BlackBerry Ltd.) said at the time. “In the central issues of our times, our policy community needs help in upping our game.”
The inaugural winner was Dan Breznitz, for Innovation in Real Places: Strategies for Prosperity in an Unforgiving World.
The fourth nominated book this year is The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians, written by Vass Bednar of Ancaster, Ont., and New York’s Denise Hearn, published by Sutherland House Books. The jury described it as a “timely, compelling and sobering read about the dangers of increasing corporate consolidation across Canada.”
In other non-fiction news, the Cundill History Prize announced its three finalists: Yale University professor Marlene L. Daut (The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe); Australia’s Lyndal Roper (Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War); and U.S. historian Sophia Rosenfeld (The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life).
The international prize is administered by Montreal’s McGill University and worth US$75,000 annually. It is given to the book that demonstrates excellence across the prize’s guiding criteria: craft, communication and consequence. The two runners-up each receive US$10,000. The winner will be announced on Oct. 30 in Montreal.
