This is the Long List. I've only heard a handful of these myself. I also see the beloved Japandroids are on here too.

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Arkells - Jackson Square
Jill Barber - Chances
Beast - Beast
Bell Orchestre - As Seen Through Windows
Bison B.C. - Quiet Earth
Bruce Peninsula - A Mountain Is A Mouth
CÅ“ur De Pirate - CÅ“ur De Pirate
Leonard Cohen - Live In London
D-Sisive - Let The Children Die
Elephant Stone - The Seven Seas
Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows
F**ked Up - The Chemistry Of Common Life
Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
Handsome Furs - Face Control
Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country
Hey Rosetta! - Into Your Lungs
Japandroids - Post-Nothing
Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
K'NAAN - Troubadour
K-OS - YES!
La patère rose - La patère rose
Land Of Talk - Some Are Lakes
Lhasa - Lhasa
Malajube - Labyrinthes
Metric - Fantasies
One Hundred Dollars - Forest Of Tears
Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love
Joel Plaskett - Three
Snailhouse - Lies On The Prize
Charles Spearin - The Happiness Project
Rae Spoon - superioryouareinferior
The Stills - Oceans Will Rise
Think About Life - Family
Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre
Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too
Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
Women - Women
Woodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada C/W Houndstooth Europa

I"ll go Junior Boys

I also heard: Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Charles Spearin, Bell Orchestre, Land of Talk and Chad Van Gaalen.

all quality, especially the highlighted.

I liked that Beast album earlier in the year...

no Clues? maybe they're not based in canada.

Woodpigeon have another album already and I didn't know Coeur de pirate were Canadian.

Not sure what the release date time frame is for this award.

There are some pretty old albums on there. Old being relative.

Found this:

havent heard any of these...dont see any I really want to either

malajube is nice.

The Wainwright album is pretty good.

Meh, the Polaris Prize is becoming a bit stale. Maybe it's because I work in community radio that I think most of these albums are just average. I'm pulling for Arkells, Bruce Peninsula and Patrick Watson though.

Don't know the Arkells but the others have some good tracks, Woodpigeon is at least interesting, Couer de pirate is fun, I still like The Stills better than most people do, Wolf Parade are spotty but still worth taking time for.

But I think the Martha Wainwright album is the strongest of those I know, unless you're required to default to Cohen in the Canadian constitution or something.

Canada's like a school sports day where they hand out medals to everyone who participated. Good job, Retard Johnny, good job!

ex-brother-in-law's mom from New Brunswick:

"Got us some pride dere, Philly. Don't piss on dat pride yeah?"

Maybe it's because I used to live there, but I find the band name "Bruce Peninsula" to be incredibly annoying. There had to be a better fucking name.

Next year Pellee Island is gonna kill at Hillside.

You can't spell "Canada's Polaris Prize Thread" without "PPDD."

(Yeah, I know I had to add "Thread" to get the second "D," so suck it.)

They do?

Well, sort of. The La Commission Scolaire EP and the wider re-release of Songbook. But not a real new album, no, I guess not.

Surprised to not see Deep Dark Woods - The Winter Hours on this list

Ah, gotcha. I agree with you that Martha's album is quality, and would be my pick to win if I cared about such things.

i'd give it to lhasa at this point out of these that i've heard.

i wish i liked my namesake band better than i do....

Here is the shortlist according to Pitchfork:

Elliott BROOD – Mountain Meadows
(Toronto, ON)

Fucked Up – The Chemistry Of Common Life
(Toronto, ON)

Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels
(Toronto, ON)

Hey Rosetta! – Into Your Lungs (and around in your heart and on through your blood)
(St. John’s, NF)

K’NAAN – Troubadour
(Toronto, ON)

Malajube – Labyrinthes
(Montréal, QC)

Metric – Fantasies
(Toronto, ON)

Joel Plaskett – Three
(Halifax, NS)

Chad VanGaalen – Soft Airplane
(Calgary, AB)

Patrick Watson – Wooden Arms
(Montréal, QC)

maybe because it's flat out boring?