The Robert Stewart Essay Competition is open to full-time undergraduate students in journalism, public relations or communications studies at an accredited Canadian university or community college.

With prizes of $2,000, $1,500 and $1,000, we believe it to be the richest essay competition ever offered to Canadian students on an annual basis.

The competition is intended to encourage the art of essay writing among a rising generation of communicators and honors the memory of Robert Stewart a brilliant essayist and a much-loved member of the Montreal Press Club who died on Dec. 28, 2003.

Stewart was a professional journalist (Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times of Canada, Ottawa Journal and Time magazine), an author ("Labrador" in 1977 and "Sam Steele: Lion of the Frontier" in 1979), and an essayist of note whose work gained him widespread respect both inside and outside the journalistic community. As the author and editor of the prestigious Royal Bank Letter, which featured essays on a wide variety of topics, he provided over one million readers worldwide with an enduring legacy of thoughtful and frequently philosophical essays.

This year's competition opens for submissions Nov. 1, 2007 and closes on Jan. 31, 2008. Essays must be between 1,000 and 1,200 words in English or French. Winners will be announced on March 12, 2008.

The essay topic for 2008 is "Tolerance".