Raymond B. Blake

History professor Raymond B. Blake has won the 2025 Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

The annual award, now in its 25th year, recognizes literary nonfiction about a political subject that is relevant to Canadian readers. In honour of the award’s 25th anniversary, the purse for the award has been increased, with the winner receiving $40,000 (up from $25,000 in previous years) and finalists receiving $5,000 (up from $2,500).

The award was presented by sponsor CN at the annual Politics and the Pen gala in Ottawa on September 24.

Blake won this year’s prize for his book Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity (On Point Press/UBC Press).

In their citation, the jury wrote that Blake’s book is a “comprehensive and compelling analysis of prime ministerial storytelling in the post-war era [that] is remarkably well-timed for this anxious geopolitical moment. This engaging book brings a unique perspective to the question of how leaders leave their imprint on a nation.”

Blake, a professor of history at the University of Regina and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, was one of five writers shortlisted for this year’s prize. The other shortlisted titles were Stephen Maher’s The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau (Simon & Schuster Canada), Jane Philpott’s Health for All: A Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada by (Signal/Penguin Random House Canada), Alasdair Roberts’s The Adaptable Country: How Canada Can Survive the Twenty-First Century (McGill-Queen’s University Press), and Tanya Talaga’s The Knowing (HarperCollins).

A jury comprised of Jennifer Ditchburn, Sara Mojtehedzadeh, and Christopher Waddell chose the winner and finalists from the 34 books submitted by 22 publishing imprints.

Writers’ Trust executive director David Leonard said that increasing the prize amount for the Shaughnessy Cohen award “underscores Writers’ Trust’s commitment to political writing and to supporting the authors who take on this vital work.”