The Walrus and Toronto Life have been battling for supremacy at Canada's National Magazine Awards for at least the past six years and they were at it again last night at the 32nd annual prize ceremony in Toronto.
The Walrus, which went into the joust with 28 nominations, won five gold medals - the most of any of the 79 magazines in competition - plus one silver. Toronto Life, with 27 nominations, won four golds and five silvers.
Report on Business Magazine had the third highest total of gold medals, with two - matched by Explore, Air Canada's enRoute, Swerve, an entertainment guide published by the Calgary Herald, and Victoria literary quarterly The Malahat Review.
More than 600 writers, editors, photographers, designers, illustrators, publishers and advertisers attended the ceremony at a downtown Toronto ballroom where, going into the competition, finalists had scored more than 300 nominations in 40 written, visual, integrated and special categories. Prevailing as magazine of the year over fellow finalists Canadian Business and Spacing, a Toronto urban-affairs periodical, was Calgary-based AlbertaViews, started in 1998 to examine "the people, policies and events that shape Alberta."
A total of 22 magazines won gold medals, with 15 earning one each, including Maclean's, Cottage Life, Outdoor Canada, Canadian Home and Country and L'actualité, the French-language weekly. Before last night, L'actualité's total nomination count of 28 was matched only by The Walrus's. (L'actualité also won three silvers.)
Finishing third overall was Explore (four gold, two silver), followed by enRoute (five medals, including three silver), Swerve (four in total, including two silver) and The Malahat Review (four, including two silver). Rounding out the top 10 were RoB Magazine, L'actualité, Maclean's (four medals, including three silver) and the women's magazine Glow (four, including two silver).
Globe and Mail writer Ian Brown won his 12th NMA, a gold in the best feature category, for an article in Explore, while Trevor Cole of Hamilton earned his ninth, a gold, for an article on the anti-Canadian Montana senator Max Baucus, published last year in RoB Magazine. Dominating the portrait photography category was Torontonian Clay Stang: He won gold for his picture of former Alberta Peter Lougheed in the RoB Magazine of Aug. 29, 2008, and silver for a photo of Somali-Canadian rapper K'Naan in Toronto Life.
Rookie Toronto Life art director Jessica Rose won best-cover honours for her controversial display of more than 50 bullets - one for each of the shooting deaths that occurred in Toronto between spring 2007 and spring 2008 - on the front of that magazine's issue in August 2008.
Gold awards include a prize of $1,000, silver $500.
Receiving the NMA Foundation Award for outstanding lifetime achievement was veteran Toronto writer, editor and instructor Cynthia Brouse.
Magazines that had been short-listed in April for NMAs but failed to win either gold or silver were accorded honourable mentions. L'actualité topped this category with 24, followed by The Walrus (22), Toronto Life (18), RoB Magazine (17), Maclean's (16) and Explore (10).
Details are at www.magazine-awards.com.