Selecting Rationality

With the Canadian federal election just weeks away, the battle for the White House in 2020 already begun, and the ongoing saga of Brexit, big questions are top of mind for politicians, public affairs journalists, and everyday people across the globe, including:

- How does an electorate want -- and expect -- their views and values to be represented in government?

= Can the data produced by pollsters be considered reliable, and what are the methods of polling that will produce accurate results?

- Which political campaigns are likely to succeed (and which aren’t)?

Enter the new book from veteran pollster, political consultant, and political science Ph.D. Kimble Ainslie: Selecting Rationality: Public Opinion, Polling, Civic Engagement and Campaigning -- Taking Political Engagement Seriously [Optimum Publishing].

A must-read for anyone seeking clarity on the critical issues of our time, Selecting Rationality offers an academically rigorous yet readable look at politics, human behaviour, psychology, and citizenship. An original and bold defence of the “collective wisdom of the electorate,” the book is informed by original research, substantial frontline experience, and sterling analysis, ultimately offering readers a profound sense of what’s real -- and what can be accomplished.

“The essays in Selecting Rationality are based on my experience as a young to aging Ph.D. pollster and political consultant drawing on more than three decades of practice,” Ainslie shares. “During this period, I served clients with local interests, as well as national and continental interests, while I worked and lived all over North America.”

“Public participation is always a problematic issue in politics,” he continues, “but you can never go wrong by taking the electorate seriously; they always provide useful guidance to political leaders.”

Kimble Ainslie now has select availability for interview, byline article, and op-ed requests in support of the Fall 2019 release of Selecting Rationality. Among the topics he can speak to:

- Public opinion and the “collective wisdom of the electorate” -- can we always count on a rational electorate, and where do they go wrong, if they do?

- Polling and the key failures of pollsters over the past decade

- Political consultants -- how much control do they have on the outcome of our elections?

- Civic engagement and the most surprising and fascinating political lessons he learned about what citizens want from their representatives in government

- The three-phase formula of an effective political campaign, and the conventional and unconventional techniques most likely to result in a win at the polls

KIMBLE F. AINSLIE is Chairman of Nordex ResearchTM, a market research, polling, and public policy consulting firm established in 1985. Currently specializing in geopolitical research and consulting, he has held various appointments at think tanks across North America including the Cato Institute in Washington D.C., the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, and Energy Probe in Toronto. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science, public administration, and governance and comparative public policy from the University of Western Ontario, Queen’s University and York University, and has taught at various universities on an adjunct basis. He is the author or editor of four books and dozens or published articles; his latest book, Selecting Rationality: Public Opinion, Polling, Civic Engagement and Campaigning -- Taking Political Engagement Seriously is released with Optimum Publishing in October 2019.