Book about Canadian COVID-19 response, ‘Seized by Uncertainty,’ wins Donner Prize

TORONTO — A book about Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has won the Donner Prize for public policy writing.

“Seized By Uncertainty: The Markets, Media and Special Interests that Shaped Canada’s Response to COVID-19” was awarded the $60,000 literary prize at a gala dinner in Toronto on Thursday evening.

Its authors, Kevin Quigley, Kaitlynne Lowe, Sarah Moore and Brianna Wolfe, were praised for delivering “a clear message that institutional inertia may prevent us from learning the right lessons from the pandemic.”

The other nominated titles each receive $7,500.

They include “Fiscal Choices: Canada After the Pandemic” by Michael M. Atkinson and Haizhen Mou, and “And Sometimes They Kill You: Confronting the Epidemic of Intimate Partner Violence” by Pamela Cross.

Rounding out the finalists were “Constraining the Court: Judicial Power and Policy Implementation in the Charter Era” by James B. Kelly, and “Hard Lessons in Corporate Governance” by Bryce C. Tingle.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2025.