I think that the part of our system that needs to be reformed the most is not how we vote in our representatives. We need to weaken the powers of the party whips. Right now backbenchers are just voting machines in parliament for 90% of bills and might as well not even show up. If we move to a system that elects more minority governments we need to loosen the party controls of MPs or we will end up in an election every 1-2 year cycle which is bad for business and governing of the country. How to balance party and candidate power, I am not sure, but I do believe that parties have too much control right now.
As for voting systems. I am lessening of a fan of proportional representation, even mixed member proportional representation, as it creates a large divide between these MPs and the local people. MPs provide a large selection of services to their constituents and these people would have no dedicated constituents and would thus be able to completely shirk that part of the job. While it would allow less electable, but highly qualified candidates that would be good for cabinet to get elected, it would also be ample ground for terrible patronage appointments, similar to the current senate.
Instant runoff ballots are interesting in concept, but I don't see them as significantly improving on the current system. conceptually they will result in a 2 party system in just as many cases as the current fptp system.
The other concept I like is to keep the House of commons the same as it is currently, re balancing the seat distribution every 10 or so years as we currently do now, and reform the senate. The Senators would be appointed by the premier, elected, drawn from a hat or any other method that each particular province would determine best for it and balanced regionally (similar to how it currently is). This would take it out of direct control of the party in power and it would represent regional and provincial interests in Ottawa with the house of commons reflecting population distribution.
I am against Mandatory voting, even with an nobody option. I want voters to be educated before they vote. The people who don't vote generally don't care about the election enough to want to vote would not be making an educated decision and would be more inclined to pick a random person on the ballot. These random ballots or joke ballots potentially scew the results and do not necessarily represent the countries best interest.
All of the above is just my current opinion of course, has changed several times over the last few years and is completely open to debate.
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