Journalist and Maclean’s politics editor Paul Wells has won the Writers’ Trust’s Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for The Longer I’m Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006 ”, published by Random House Canada. Wells was presented with the $25,000 prize at the Politics and the Pen gala, the Writers’s Trust’s annual fundraiser, in Ottawa on Wednesday.*

The jury comprised the Calgary Herald‘s Licia Corbella, journalist Jane O’Hara, and Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders. Of the winning book the jury wrote:

Veteran political columnist Paul Wells has crafted a fast-paced, romping great read about a prime minister who is frequently described by the Parliamentary Press Gallery as dull, plodding, and inscrutable. Though viscerally funny and often biting, this book is never partisan or unfair. Impeccably researched, gorgeously written, and deeply insightful, The Longer I’m Prime Minister is an essential read for all political junkies.

Each of the nominees received $2,500. The other finalists were:

• Margaret MacMillan, The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 (Allen Lane Canada)
• Charles Montgomery, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design (Doubleday Canada)
• Donald J. Savoie, Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher? How Government Decides and Why (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
• Graeme Smith, The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan (Knopf Canada)

*Update: April 4: The story has been updated to note The Writer’s Trust’s involvement in the prize.