Dear Friends,
The holidays are a time to pause, reflect, and, if we’re fortunate, find some
inspiration for the year ahead.
Each year, we ask our friends, diverse and interesting Canadian leaders, what they
plan to read during their precious moments of relaxation. Collectively, the titles
they’ve shared with us represent a delightful combination of intellect, creativity and
a sheer love of reading. They might even inspire you and provide ideas for your own
list of must-reads.
I’m delighted to share with you the Public Policy Forum’s 2014 Holiday Reading List.
A few new titles appear on more than one list, including many by Canadian authors
like Us Conductors, the debut novel and Giller Prize winner by Sean Michaels and
Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada’s Radical Makeover by investigative
journalist, Michael Harris. The Innovators, a fascinating history of the collaborative
geniuses behind the digital revolution, is the most popular choice, by biographer,
Walter Isaacson.
We’re pleased to announce a media partnership with the Ottawa Citizen this year,
which will feature our sixth annual Holiday Reading List in the December 20th online
edition of the newspaper.
With all best wishes from the Public Policy Forum for a joyous holiday season,
David Mitchell
President & CEO
Public Policy Forum
2014
Holiday Reading List
David Agnew, President, Seneca College of Applied Arts
and Technology
• Strategy: A History by Lawrence Freeman (2013)
• No Great Mischief: A Novel by Alistair MacLeod (1999)
Jordan Banks, Managing Director, Facebook Canada
• The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to
Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by
Michio Kaku (2014)
• Bruce by Peter Ames Carlin (2013)
• The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses,
and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter
Isaacson (2014)
Dominic Barton, Managing Director, McKinsey & Co
• How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the
Modern World by Stephen Johnson (2014)
• The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers,
Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by
Walter Isaacson (2014)
• Markets over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in
China by Nicholas Lardy (2014)
Carolle Brabant, Executive Director, Telefilm Canada
• Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (2007)
• The Long Way Home: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel
by Louise Penny (2014)
Ian Brodie, Research Director, School of Public Policy,
University of Calgary
• Discovering Confederation: A Canadian’s Story by Janet
Ajzenstat (2014)
• Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert Gates
(2014)
Ian Capstick, Managing Partner, MediaStyle
• Secret Service: Political Policing in Canada From the
Fenians to Fortress America by Andrew Parnaby,
Gregory S. Kealey, Reg Whitaker (2012)
• The Orenda by Joseph Boyden (2013)
Deepak Chopra, President and CEO, Canada Post
• How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan
Rosenberg (2014)
Hon. Tony Clement, President, Treasury Board
• The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Book Four: The Passage
of Power by Robert Caro (2012)
Mike Coates, President and CEO, Americas, Hill+Knowlton
Strategies
• Leading Change: Overcoming the Ideology of Comfort
and the Tyranny of Custom by James O’Toole (1995)
• How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan
Rosenberg (2014)
Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, President and CEO, VIA Rail
• The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter
Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes
Business, Economies, Societies and Nations by James
Surowiecki (2004)
• The Best Laid Plans: A Novel by Terry Fallis (2008)
• You are here: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by
Chris Hadfield (2013)
2014
Holiday Reading List
Jim Dinning, Former Treasurer, Province of Alberta
• Best Laid Plans: A Novel by Terry Fallis (2008)
Goldy Hyder, President and CEO, Canada, Hill+Knowlton
Strategies
• The High Road: A Novel by Terry Fallis (2010)
• Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor
Company by Bryce G. Hoffman (2012)
Christine Elliot, Progressive Conservative MPP, Whitby–
Oshawa
Lisa Kimmel, General Manager, Edelman Toronto
• The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and
Economies Die by Niall Ferguson (2013)
Phil Fontaine, Special Advisor, RBC and President and
Founder, Ishkonigan Consulting and Meditation
• The Ripple Effect, the fate of freshwater in the 21st
century by Alex Prud’Homme (2012)
• The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth
Kolbert (2014)
• The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses
and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter
Isaacson (2014)
• Adult Onset by Ann-Marie MacDonald (2014)
Suzanne Labarge, Chancellor, McMaster University
• When the Money Runs Out: The End of Western
Affluence by Stephen D. King (2013)
Kathryn McDade, Vice-President, Public Policy Forum
Suzanne Fortier, Principal, McGill University
• Nora Webster: A novel by Colm Tóibín (2014)
• Us Conductors: A novel by Sean Michaels (2014)
• J, by Howard Jacobson (2014)
• The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of
Information Overload by Daniel Levitin (2014)
Rosemary McCarney, President and CEO, Plan Canada
Chrystia Freeland, Liberal MP, Toronto Centre
• The Shifts and the Shocks: What We’ve Learned-and
Have Still to Learn-from the Financial Crisis by Martin
Wolf (2014)
• Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial
Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy by
Francis Fukuyama (2014)
Hon. Brian Gallant, Premier, Province of New Brunswick
• Mémoires by Abdou Diouf (2015)
• The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first
Century by Thomas L. Friedman (2005)
Peter Herrndorf, President and CEO, National Arts Centre
• The Necessary War Volume One by Tim Cook (2014)
• The Long Way Home: A Chief Inspector Gamache
Novel by Louise Penny (2014)
• The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers,
Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by
Walter Isaacson (2014)
• Punishment by Lynden McIntyre (2014)
• Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle
by Dan Senor and Saul Singer (2011)
• The Goldfinch: A Novel by Donna Tartt (2013)
2014
Holiday Reading List
Elizabeth May, Leader, Green Party of Canada
Hon. Jim Prentice, Premier, Province of Alberta
• Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada’s Radical
Makeover by Michael Harris (2014)
• The Years of Lyndon Johnson Book Two: Means of
Ascent by Robert Caro (1990)
• Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by
Karen Armstrong (2014)
• The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard
Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns
Goodwin (2013)
•
Punishment by Lynden McIntyre (2014)
Paul Moist, National President, Canadian Union of Public
Employees
• Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada’s Radical
Makeover by Michael Harris (2014)
• This Changes Everything – Capitalism vs. The Climate
by Naomi Klein (2014)
• Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship by Adrienne
Clarkson (2014)
Marta Morgan, Associate Deputy Minister, Finance Canada
• All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews (2014)
• You are here: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by
Chris Hadfield (2013)
Patrick Pichette, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer, Google
• To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next
Generation by Paul Farmer (2013)
• Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History,
and What They Reveal About the Future by Ian Morris
(2010)
• Black Skies: An Inspector Erlendur Novel by Arnaldur
Indridason (2013)
Alan Shepard, President and Vice-Chancellor, Concordia
University
• Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of
Independence in Defense of Equality by Danielle Allen
(2014)
• The Morning After: The 1995 Quebec Referendum and
the Day that Almost Was by Chantal Hébert (2014)
• World Order by Henry Kissinger (2014)
• Nora Webster: A novel by Colm Tóibín (2014)
Kirstine Stewart, Vice-President, North American Media,
Twitter
• Not That Kind Of Girl: A young woman tells you what
she’s learned by Lena Dunham (2014)
• Dataclysm: Who We Are When We Think No One Is
Looking by Christian Rudder (2014)
• Us Conductors: A novel by Sean Michaels (2014)
Dr. Gregory Taylor, Chief Public Health Officer, Public
Health Agency of Canada
• Meditation in Action by Chogyam Trungpa (2010)
Justin Trudeau, Leader, Liberal Party of Canada
• Family Portrait by Alain Dubuc (2014)