On Proportional Representation

While I'm not as skeptical as other here about PR (I'm not entirely sure that Political Parties are necessarily a bad thing) I do think it could be worth a try. While my ideal would be to have a PR EEE Senate, coupled with a FTP Commons (sort of like Australia), I don't think we're going to see that any time soon. I'd also think that any type of PR system in Canada would have to be of the mixed variety (like New Zealand's, for example). I've found it quite amusing at the various fora throughout this campaign watching the various candidates spout platitudes about "representing constituents" and the need for PR in the same breath. One problem I'd see with it is denying voters the opportunity to punish a leader by defeating them in their own riding. Some of the highlights this time around were watching Martin and Layton trailing in the early polls in their ridings (likewise, I'm sure if you were a Liberal or NDPer in Alberta in 1989, watching Don Getty go down in Whitemud was probably kind of funny). But maybe that's just my inner spite talking. With PR, party leaders would be virtually guaranteed seats based on a reasonable percentage of the vote, as they'd likely opt to be high list candidates. And really, if the party leader can't be a good constituency politician, should they really be leader at all?