The unfinished border between Maine and New Brunswick, a biography of Sir John A. Macdonald, a pine beetle epidemic, and two biographies on Pierre Trudeau make up The Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing shortlist.

This year’s finalists are:

• Ron Graham, The Last Act: Pierre Trudeau, the Gang of Eight, and the Fight for Canada (Allen Lane Canada)
• Richard Gwyn, Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times; Volume Two 1867 – 1891 (Random House Canada)
• Max and Monique Nemni; George Tombs, trans., Trudeau Transformed: The Shaping of a Statesment, 1944 – 1965 (McClelland & Stewart)
• Andrew Nikiforuk, Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America’s Great Forests (Greystone Books/David Suzuki Foundation)
• Jacques Poitras, Imaginary Line: Life on an Unfinished Border (Goose Lane Editions)

The winner of the $25,000 prize, founded in memory of Canadian politician Shaughnessy Cohen, will be announced April 25 at the Politics and the Pen Gala at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa.