Positive PR

The CP points out that Fair Vote Canada and other PR proponents are far from giving up on proportional representation. But perhaps more significant is buried in a CanWest article on Harper's refusal to form an official coalition if he wins a minority government:

(T)here is a growing sense that Canada needs to make a fundamental break with the past.

Rick Anderson, a senior advisor to former Reform leader Preston Manning, has become so disillusioned with the prevailing political culture that he has founded the Fireweed Democracy Project, which aims to promote democratic reform in federal politics.

"If ever there was a country needing a coalition governance model in its democratic institutions and culture, it is 21st century Canada," he says. "[The political system] remains stuck in the past, better suited to excessively partisan combat than to legislative co-operation. This needs to change."

Anderson doesn't refer to PR directly. But the principle that a coalition can be more effective than a majority in representing the interests of the country as a whole is one that lends itself readily to a PR-type system. And the website for Anderson's project includes PR among a bevy of possible improvements to the status quo.

As far as the election is concerned, the Fireweed Democracy Project seems to have limited itself to informing voters about party policy rather than making endorsements. But it's noteworthy that the NDP is not only the largest federal party looking to PR as a solution, but that it's also posted the most content on democratic reform during the course of the campaign.

Based on the Fireweed project as well as the continued efforts of Free Vote Canada, it should be clear that PR isn't going away as an issue...and that there's a strong populist undercurrent whose policy interests are aligned with those of the NDP. If enough of those voters cast their ballots for the best chance of change, then the NDP could end up with enough clout to make PR a reality within the next Parliament.