Five books have been named finalists for the 2026 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy.

Books about foreign interference, the truth of aging as a woman, and reckoning with hockey culture are among the five finalists for the 2026 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy.

Administered by the Writers’ Trust of Canada, the annual prize, now in its sixth year, recognizes nonfiction books that further policy discussions on social, political, economic, and cultural topics.  The winner will receive $70,000, with finalists to receive $7,500.

A jury comprised of historian and professor Raymond B. Blake, doctor and author Samantha Nutt, and digital strategist Scott Young chose this year’s finalists from 36 titles submitted by 24 publishing imprints.

The winner will be named at an event in Toronto on Nov. 24.

The shortlisted titles are:

• Dennis Molinaro for Under Assault: Interference and Espionage in China’s Secret War Against Canada (Random House Canada)
• Moira Welsh for The Astonishing Lives of Older Women: How to Create Pleasure Over Peril in Peak Longevity (ECW Press)
• Rick Westhead for We Breed Lions: Confronting Canada’s Troubled Hockey Culture (Random House Canada)
• Jesse Winter for Wild Fire: Dispatches from a Country Ablaze (HarperCollins Canada)
• Tim Wu for The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity (Alfred A. Knopf)

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