A book about how Canadians ended up fighting in Kandahar and another about the failures of Canadian business in the face of free trade are shortlisted for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar by Janice Gross Stein of Toronto and Eugene Lang of Ottawa and Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson by Andrea Mandel-Campbell of Toronto are among five finalists for the award for political writing.

Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual by Ottawa city Coun. Clive Doucet is one of five finalists for award in political writing. Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual by Ottawa city Coun. Clive Doucet is one of five finalists for award in political writing.

Also nominated are:

  • Clive Doucet of Ottawa for Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual.
  • Richard Gwyn of Toronto for John A: The Man Who Made Us; The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald, Volume One: 1815-1867.
  • David E. Smith of Regina for The People's House of Commons: Theories of Democracy in Contention.

The $15,000 prize, named for an outspoken and popular MP from Windsor, Ont., who died in 1998, is administered by the Writers Trust of Canada.

In The Unexpected War, Stein and Lang provide a step-by-step examination of how Canada slipped into a conflict that now means mounting casualties and grim battles in Afghanistan .

In Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson, business writer and expert on Latin America Mandel-Campbell castigates the timidity of Canadian business and its failure to create multinational companies.

Veteran political commentator Gwyn is nominated for the first volume of his biography of Canada's first prime minister, chronicling Macdonald's leading role in Confederation. Gwyn has also been nominated for the Charles Taylor Prize in non-fiction for the book.

Ottawa city councillor Doucet's Urban Meltdown lays responsibility for global warming at the feet of explosive urban growth and explains why politicians are paralyzed over climate change.

Smith, one of Canada's foremost experts in political science, explores competing political models and proposed changes to Canada's political system and how Canadians view them in The People's House.

Each of the finalists wins $2,000. The winner will be named Feb. 27 at the Politics and the Pen reception and dinner in Ottawa.