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Pamela Wallin

Will it be Stevie Cameron's On the Take: Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years, or A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada by John Ralston Saul? How about Lawrence Martin's Harperland: The Politics of Control?

These are three of the 12 titles in the running for the honour of being "the best Canadian political book of the last 25 years." Canadians are being invited to read, vote and comment on the short list which was released Thursday by contest organizers the Writers' Trust of Canada and Samara, a charitable organization established in 2008 to "strengthen Canadian democracy."

The short list was determined with the help of 20 prominent Canadians, including journalists Paul Wells (himself a finalist) and Andrew Coyne, Senators Pat Carney and Pamela Wallin and broadcasters Rosemary Barton and Don Newman. Canadians have until midnight, Aug. 1, to vote for their favourite (at www.samaracanada.com), with the results released no later than Aug. 8. There's no cash prize for the winner.

The contest is the brainchild of Samara executive director Alison Loat. "Last year around this time I put up a blog post where I said, 'There are really no definitive lists of great Canadian political books. What are your favourites?' Probably about 200 people e-mailed in about 48 hours with suggestions." Loat culled this feedback into "a long, unreadable list of about 150 books," then approached the Writers' Trust, which organizes many Canadian literary awards, "to be a partner in making it something a little more engaging, fun and long-term."

Loat acknowledged in an interview that several of the short-listed titles are no longer in print. "Which is unfortunate. It'd be wonderful if our greatest political books were in print," she said. "But we have notified all the publishers that these books have been chosen, as well as the authors. And we're thankful for the public library system. Wouldn't be wonderful if this could generate enough interest that they'd consider making these accessible as e-books? That would be a nice byproduct of the contest."

The other nine finalists are:

Trudeau and Our Times, Vol. One: The Magnificent Obsession (1990) and Vol. 2: The Heroic Delusion (1994) by Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall.

While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World (2003), Andrew Cohen.

Fights of Our Lives: Elections, Leadership and the Making of Canada (2002), John Duffy.

The Best Laid Plans (2008), Terry Fallis.

One-Eyed Kings: Promise & Illusion in Canadian Politics (1986), Ron Graham.

John A: The Man Who Made Us - The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald, Vol. One (2007), Richard Gwyn.

Shakedown: How Our Government Is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights (2009), Ezra Levant.

1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal (1997), Christopher Moore.

Right Side Up: The Fall of Paul Martin and the Rise of Stephen Harper's Conservatism (2006), Paul Wells.

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