I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on proportional representation. Basically, aside from the parties that benefit unfairly from the "first past the post" system, I don't see how anyone could have an objection to it.

I'm pretty sure everyone knows what PR is, but to get an idea of how serious the problem can be, here's a little excerpt from Welcome! | Fair Vote Canada / Représentation équitable au Canada
If this is to be a democracy, shouldn't the composition of the government reflect the desires of the population?

It should work that way but the system has been twisted to allow things like that to happen.

That's true, but there are many countries that use a proportional system, and there are groups in the US and Canada that have been lobbying for it for some time now. Is it only the current majority government that is preventing this type of system from being implemented?

Yes it is the current majority that stops things like this from being implemented. Also you have to take into consideration all the kickbacks politicians receive from corporations and lobbyists.

I agree that corruption is a problem, but I think there's more to it than that.

I don't really know how the Canadian system works, but in the U.S., you'd have to completely change the way we do things in order for that to work. Right now, we have proportional representation not based on idealogy, but based on geography. That made great sense 200 years ago; and even made sense 20 years ago. But our world is getting more and more global and I'm not sure but what it IS time for a change. But in order to allow for proportional representation based on idealogy you have to get rid of proportional representation based on geography. You can't have both -- unless you want to double the number of politicians, and I don't. At that point, you have to make some tough calls about how to (re)organize the way the government officials get elected. I would be very interested in something like that, but I think we're a long way off from being able to see it happen.

I think people in less population dense areas fear that in a system of proportional representation they would have less representation in the government than people living in large cities. This of course is based on the presumption that people living in rural areas are inclined to vote differently than people in cities and towns.

I like the idea. Constitutional amendment, anyone?

Good luck, the process is not for the faint of heart.

I actually think it would be the opposite, and many of the people that I know lobbying for PR in Canada are in rural areas. That's because rural areas tend to be lumped in with a nearby city, and as you said, people living in rural areas are inclined to vote differently than people in cities. The thing that ends up happening is the thousands of people in the city elect whoever they want, and the hundreds in the rural area that are part of the same riding don't end up making a difference. On the other hand, with proportional representation, all of those rural areas added together might end up electing somebody.