2025 Rules: 3rd Annual Patricia Trottier and Gwyn Morgan Student Essay Contest
- The contest is open to students studying in Canada and to Canadian students studying abroad. Canadian students studying abroad may be asked to provide proof of citizenship. A student is defined as someone who attends school in the 2025/26 school year.
- Submissions will be considered from undergraduate students only. There is no restriction on discipline of study.
- Past essay contestants who finished in any of the top three spots in either 2023 or 2024 are not eligible to submit in 2025.
- An essay may only have one author.
- Essays must be a minimum of 1,500 words and no more than 2,500 words. Essay for purposes of this contest is defined as a written composition that presents a coherent and structured argument or discussion on a particular topic. It is a literary piece written in third person that expresses the author’s perspective, ideas, and insights about a subject matter. Essays should not be works of pure opinion but rather supported by facts and evidence and structured as a coherent argument. Winning essays from 2023 can be read here and from 2024 here.
- Submissions will address a current political, cultural or economic topic of the author’s choosing broadly consistent with the principles of free markets, democratic governance, individual liberty, reason, personal responsibility and freedom of conscience and expression. In the spirit of open inquiry and free expression the contest welcomes essays that challenge conventional orthodoxies.
- All essays submitted must be the original work of the entrant. Submissions that are generated in whole or in part by artificial intelligence (AI) writing tools (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.) are not permitted. Essays must be written by the entrant without the assistance of automated text-generation software. By entering the contest, participants certify that their essay is their own original work and does not include writing generated by AI systems. Any entry found to violate this rule will be disqualified.
- Entries must be a single document with page numbers that include a title page with the name of the author, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address along name of post-secondary institution, major (if applicable) and year of study.
- Entries must be submitted online in .pdf or .doc format no later than midnight on Sunday November 2, 2025.
- Entries may only be submitted once. Further submissions with revisions will not be accepted.
- Failure to follow these rules may lead to disqualification from the contest.
- Entries will be judged – in no particular order – on ten criteria: 1) content and relevance; 2) thesis and argument; 3) organization and structure; 4) clarity and coherence; 5) writing style and language; 6) evidence and support; 7) creativity and originality; 8) engagement and impact; 9) adherence to guidelines; and 10) overall impression.
- $6,000 in prize money will be distributed to five winners as follows: first place $2500; second place $1,750; third place $1,000; fourth place $500 and fifth place $250. The five students will also receive books provided by sponsors. The top three winners will additionally be awarded: 1) the opportunity to work with a professional editor and have their essays published in C2C Journal along with channels supported by sponsoring organizations; 2) an invitation to be interviewed on the cable news program On Second Street (hosted on The News Forum) and profiled on Juno News; 3) automatic enrollment in Freedom Week hosted by the Institute for Liberal Studies (summer 2026 at McGill University in Montreal, date TBA) and; 4) registration fee and travel voucher to attend the 2026 Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference (Spring 2026 in Ottawa date TBA).
- Winners will be notified no later than December 19, 2025.
- The Patricia Trottier and Gwyn Morgan Student Essay Contest is administered by the Manning Foundation for Democratic Education. Inquiries and requests for further information may be directed by email only to info@manningfoundation.org.