Jeff Rubin, the former CIBC chief economist, has been named winner of this year’s National Business Book Award for his book Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization (Random House Canada). The announcement was made this afternoon at a luncheon in Toronto.

Rubin beat out fellow nominees John DeMont (Coal Black Heart: The Story of Coal and the Lives it Ruled), Wendy Dobson (Gravity Shift: How Asia’s New Economic Powerhouses Will Shape the Twenty-First Century), Buzz Hargrove (Laying It on the Line: Driving a Hard Bargain in Challenging Times), and Rod McQueen (Manulife: How Dominic D’Alessandro Built a Global Giant and Fought to Save It).

The award comes with a $20,000 cash prize, and the jurors were Jane Cooney, president, Books for Business; William Dimma, chairman emeritus, Home Capital Group; Peter Mansbridge, chief correspondent, CBC Television; Deirdre McMurdy, vice-president, Public Policy Forum; and Pamela Wallin, senator.