It commemorates long-time Winnipeg Free Press editor John W. Dafoe.
The 2013 finalists are:
by Mary Janigan
Warrior Nation: rebranding Canada in an age of anxiety (M)
by Ian McKay and Jamie Swift
by Noah Richer
Chronic Condition: why Canada’s health care system needs to be dragged into the 21st Century (M)
by Jeffrey Simpson
Secret Service: political policing in Canada from the Fenians to Fortress America (ILL)
by Reg Whitaker, Gregory S. Kealey and Andrew Parnaby.
Source: http://www.thereader.ca/2013/04/the-john-w-dafoe-book-prize.html