Sheila Watt-Cloutier

The Writers’ Trust of Canada announced the five finalists for the 2016 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing on March 2. The prize, now in its 16th year, is awarded to a book of literary non-fiction on a political subject of relevance to Canadians, and is named in honour of the outspoken member of Parliament. The winner of the $25,000 prize will be named on April 20 at the trust’s Politics and the Pen Gala in Ottawa.

The finalists, chosen by a jury including military historian Tim Cook, Globe and Mail  journalist Robyn Doolittle, and McGill University professor Antonia Maioni, are:

• Greg Donaghy, Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr. (UBC Press)
• Norman Hillmer, O.D. Skelton: A Portrait of Canadian Ambition (University of Toronto Press)
• John Ibbitson, Stephen Harper (Signal/McClelland & Stewart)
• Andrew Nikiforuk, Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry (Greystone Books and the David Suzuki Institute)
• Sheila Watt-Cloutier, The Right To Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic, and the Whole Planet (Allen Lane)