On March 6, Canada’s political and literary worlds teamed up for the annual Politics and the Pen gala, held at the Fairmont Château Laurier. As well as being an important fundraiser for the Writers’ Trust (it raised an estimated $325,000), this event is a chance for writers and politicians to rub elbows with diplomats, journalists, leaders in business, people in the arts, and more.

The event was hosted by the charismatic Mark Carney (Governor of the Bank of Canada) and John Baird (Minister of Foreign Affairs). Among the 500 people in attendance were such notable names as Conrad Black, Jian Ghomeshi, Rick Mercer, Olivia Chow, and Jim Watson (as well as Ottawa Magazine editor Sarah Brown and St. Joseph Media president Douglas Knight.)

The evening culminated with journalist Marcello Di Cintio winning the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for his book Walls: Travels Along the Barricades. The other finalists up for the award were Taras Grescoe, Noah Richler, Peter F. Trent, and Jeffrey Simpson (who was profiled in Ottawa Magazine in September). The finalists didn’t leave empty handed, though — each took home a $2,500 prize.

Click on the photos to launch a slideshow of pix from a night that’s considered a “highlight of the capital’s spring social calendar.”