Books on artificial intelligence, truth and reconciliation, interprovincial free trade, tribalism and the necessity of arts education make up the short list for the 2023 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy. The $60,000 annual award recognizes comprehensive non-fiction books that further policy discussions on social, political, economic and cultural topics.
Among the nominated authors is Toronto’s Ryan Manucha, for Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups: Canada’s Quest for Interprovincial Free Trade. Earlier this year, the book by the first-time author and Harvard Law graduate won the Donner Prize, which annually celebrates Canadian public policy writing and research.
The four other Balsillie Prize shortlisted books are:
- Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence, by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb. The book by the three economists, a follow-up to 2018′s Prediction Machines, argues for the retooling of fundamental systems and structures to accommodate the coming AI revolution.
- Truth Telling: Seven Conversations About Indigenous Life in Canada, by Saskatchewan’s Michelle Good. A collection of essays about the contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada from the Cree novelist includes an update of her 2018 Globe and Mail opinion piece on the real harm that “pretendians” or “play Indians” can inflict on Indigenous people.
- Our Tribal Future: How to Channel Our Foundational Human Instincts into a Force for Good, by David R. Samson, of Mississauga. The author is an associate professor of biological anthropology at the University of Toronto. His look at tribalism incorporates science, philosophy and his own field research with wild chimpanzees.
- The Compassionate Imagination: How the Arts Are Central to a Functioning Democracy, by Max Wyman. In his recent opinion piece in The Globe, the Vancouver-based writer and cultural commentator argued for the need to see arts and culture not as a frill, nor an outlier, nor a tool, “but as a central and necessary element of our nationhood.”
The Balsillie Prize, first awarded in 2021, is funded by Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie, who was fictionally portrayed by Glenn Howerton in this year’s hit film BlackBerry.
This year’s jury was composed of author/physician Samantha Nutt, policy expert Taki Sarantakis and digital strategist Scott Young. They selected the short list from 43 titles submitted by 25 publishers. The winner will be announced on Nov. 28.