Book about Canada's pandemic response wins $60K Donner Prize for best Canadian public policy book
Kevin Quigley, Kaitlynne Lowe, Sarah Moore and Brianna Wolfe have won the 2024 Donner Prize for their book for their book Seized By Uncertainty: The Markets, Media and Special Interests that Shaped
Canada's Response to COVID-19.
The annual $60,000 award recognizes the best public policy book by a Canadian and offers $7,500 to the remaining finalists.
Seized By Uncertainty explore how cultural, institutional and political factors influenced the Canadian government's response to the pandemic, which they conclude was woefully inadequate.
The winner was chosen from books published during the calendar year by a jury of six members. André Beaulieu chaired the jury, which was comprised of Neil Desai, Jack Mintz, Maureen O'Neil, Antonia Maioni and Fred Wien.
The jury noted the winning title told "a compelling story and providing important policy direction. It offers a portrayal of policymaking and implementation in crisis mode, and delivers a clear message that institutional inertia may prevent us from learning the right lessons from the pandemic."
The remaining finalists were Fiscal Choices by Michael M. Atkinson and Haizhen Mou, And Sometimes They Kill You by Pamela Cross, Constraining the Court by James B. Kelly and Hard Lessons in Corporate Governance by Bryce C. Tingle.
The Donner Prize was founded in 1998.
The 2023 winner was Who Owns Outer Space? by Michael Byers and Aaron Boley.
Past winners include Dan Breznitz for Innovation in Real Places, Joseph Heath for The Machinery of Government, Dennis McConaghy for Breakdown, Thomas J. Courchene for Indigenous Nationals, Canadian Citizens and Alex Marland for Brand Command.
