Instead of adopting PR, we should keep the current system and reform Canada's archaic customs of party discipline (by allowing more free votes in the Commons and so forth) in order that the concerns of the electorate can be better represented. Proportional representation is a European notion that is foreign to our Parliamentary traditions and has a distinct number of disadvantages:
-it would require Constitutional reform- always an inherently dangerous proposition in Canada
-local interests would go unaddressed
-it undermines the authority of MPs. Under the current system, an MP of whatever party represents an entire community of people. Under PR, he represents only those who happen to agree with him. This increases skepticism and encourages polarization, factionalism, and social disunity
-it is totalitarian. An MP under the current system represents a real live community with a definite existence outside of government. Under PR, this local and community component evaporates; the MP represents a mass of disconnected individuals who have no social unity outside of the Parliamentary machine. The idea of government as the sole unifying force in society inherently lends itself to elitist, overly centralized, intrusive, and authoritarian styles of government.