Just in time for Canada Day, the Writers’ Trust of Canada has unveiled its list of the best Canadian political books of the past 25 years. The dozen finalists were chosen from nominations sent in by hundreds of Canadian readers, including prominent authors and politicos such as Anna Porter, Andrew Coyne, and Senator Pamela Wallin. Now, the Writers’ Trust is asking the public to vote on a winner, to be announced in the first week of August.

The prize was launched this year in partnership with Samara, a charitable organization that seeks to strengthen Canadian democracy. The 12 finalists are:

¢ Stevie Cameron, On the Take: Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years (1994)

¢ Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall, Trudeau and Our Times, Volume 1: The Magnificent Obsession (1990) and Volume 2: The Heroic Delusion (1994)

¢ Andrew Cohen, While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World (2003)

¢ John Duffy, Fights of Our Lives: Elections, Leadership and the Making of Canada (2002)

¢ Terry Fallis, The Best Laid Plans (2008)

¢ Ron Graham, One-Eyed Kings: Promise & Illusion in Canadian Politics (1986)

¢ Richard Gwyn, John A: The Man Who Made Us; The Life and Times of John A. MacDonald, Volume One (2007)

¢ Ezra Levant, Shakedown: How Our Government Is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights (2009)

¢ Lawrence Martin, Harperland: The Politics of Control (2010)

¢ Christopher Moore, 1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal (1997)

¢ John Ralston Saul, A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada (2008)

¢ Paul Wells, Right Side Up: The Fall of Paul Martin and the Rise of Stephen Harper’s Conservatism (2006)