Here are the finalists for the Donner Prize, the $60K public policy book awards

TORONTO — Followups to two Canadian bestsellers have made the short list for this year’s $60,000 Donner Prize.

The Donner Canadian Foundation announced the finalists for the public policy book award on Tuesday, and the prize is due to be handed out at a gala dinner in Toronto on May 14.

The finalists include Bob Joseph’s “21 Things You Need to Know About Indigenous Self-Government: A Conversation About Dismantling the Indian Act,” which expands on his 2018 bestseller “21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act.”

Also in the running is “Breaking Point: The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk” by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson, from the authors of 2013’s “The Big Shift,” which outlined how Canada was becoming polarized.

The short list also includes “The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity” by Tim Wu, which was named one of the New Yorker’s best books of 2025.

Rounding out the short list are “Borderline Chaos: How Canada Got Immigration Right, and Then Wrong” by Tony Keller and “A New Blueprint for Government: Reshaping Power, The PMO, and the Public Service” by Kevin G. Lynch and James R. Mitchell.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2026.