2015 Donald Smiley Prize

Winner: Bruce Smardon

Asleep at the Switch: The Political Economy of Federal Research and Development Policy since 1960, McGill-Queen’s University Press

Bruce Smardon thanking the prize awarded at the CPSA President’s Dinner – June 3, 2015 – Roof Top Terrace at National Arts Centre, Ottawa.

Excerpt from jury report: This is a detailed investigation of the policy failure of federal Research and Development policy in the post 1960 period. The origins of this failure lie in the first decade of the twentieth century with the development by the Canadian private sector of a technological dependence on US companies. In the post 1960’s period this leads to a systematic mismatch between the growing body of research being done in the universities and a poorly developed set of innovative capacity in the private sector. To quote the author “Canada’s failure to create more innovative economy was the lack of collaboration by capital.”