The 25th Annual Donner Prize, Now $60,000

Gregory Belton, Chair of the Board of the Donner Canadian Foundation, today announced that submissions are now open for the 2022 Donner Prize. On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, the purse is increased to $60,000, for the best public policy book by a Canadian.

“The raison d’etre of the Donner Prize is to encourage research and discussion about Canadian public policy issues,” says Belton. “It’s been fascinating to see, over the Prize’s 25-year history, how the Donner Prize, through the shortlists and winners, has anticipated, reflected upon, and analyzed the essential policy issues of the time. From defence, environment, natural resources, health care, Indigenous relations, policing, banking, to the essence of government itself. We look forward to this year’s selections.”

The winner of the Donner Prize will receive $60,000, and the other shortlisted titles will each receive $7,500.

The Donner Canadian Foundation, one of Canada’s oldest foundations, created the prize in 1998 to encourage and honour the best public policy thinking, writing, and research by a Canadian, and the role it plays in determining the well-being of Canadians. Books written or co-written by a Canadian, in either French or English, are eligible.

The 2021 Donner Prize was awarded to Dan Breznitz for Innovation in Real Places: Strategies for Prosperity in an Unforgiving World, published by Oxford University Press.

“Being awarded the Donner Prize has been both an utter surprise and an immense honour. The Donner Prize plays a critical role in allowing new ideas to enter the Canadian public debate, especially in a time when our national conversion is fractured, and new technologies make it extremely difficult to present complex ideas that are not copy and pasted from somewhere else,” Breznitz commented. “Without the Donner Canadian Foundation, discussions about our own society and policy would be a lot more superficial. Winning the Prize introduced my book, Innovation in Real Places, and many other worthy titles to many Canadians who otherwise would have never heard about them. The quality of our policy is vastly enhanced thanks to the continuous effort of the Donner Canadian Foundation and the Donner Prize.”