Tanya Talaga, Jane Philpott among finalists for Shaughnessy Cohen Prize

Journalist Tanya Talaga and former health minister Jane Philpott are among the authors shortlisted for this year’s Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

The Writers’ Trust of Canada announced the finalists on Wednesday, while the winner will be named at the annual Politics and the Pen gala in Ottawa in September.

Talaga, who previously won the prize in 2018, made the list for “The Knowing,” which jurors describe as “a searing new perspective on how this country’s most fundamental institutions are weaponized against Indigenous communities.”

Philpott, meanwhile, is shortlisted for “Health for All: A Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada,” which the jury praises for its helpful description of the “overwhelmingly complex health-care issues at stake.”

Two books about Canada’s prime ministers are in the running, including journalist Stephen Maher’s “The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau.”

Jurors say “The Prince” offers “satisfying answers” about what went wrong during Trudeau’s decade in power.

Meanwhile, University of Regina professor Raymond B. Blake’s “Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity” is said by the jury to be “remarkably well timed for this anxious geopolitical moment.”

Rounding out the short list is University of Massachusetts professor Alasdair Roberts, for his book about how to rebuild trust in public institutions, “The Adaptable Country: How Canada Can Survive the Twenty-First Century.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2025.

The Canadian Press