This is a trend I could get used to. Last week, TVO's own foreign affairs analyst Janice Stein won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political non-fiction with her book on how Canada got into the war in Afghanistan.

And now today, Richard Gwyn is sipping champagne as well.

Richard, who was on TVO's weekly foreign affairs panel with Janice for 12 years, has won the Charles Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction with his book on the man who made us, Sir John A. Macdonald.

Well done Richard. It's yet another hopeful sign of something I wrote about in yesterday's blogpost --- that we are living at a time when there's an increasing appreciation for our history and the decision-makers that helped us get to where we are today.

Not too long ago, Richard and several others joined us at the Munk Centre to discuss Canadian history. If you missed that program, it's well worth a watch: October 25 2007 - Richard Gwyn | Historic Apathy?