Electoral reform on CBC's "The House"

Okay, any of you that have even the vaguest of interest in democratic and electoral reform--and especially in proportional representation--need to listen to the latest installment of CBC's "The House." It's fifty minutes and twenty-nine long seconds of talk, but nearly every minute is worthwhile. The very best part, though, is the middle section with the two star guests: Preston Manning and Ed Broadbent. It's as if it had been designed to warm my little idealistic pragmatist heart--two brilliant, eloquent stalwarts from completely opposite sides of the political spectrum joining forces to make a well-worded and surprisingly complete appeal for proportional representation. They address the good points of PR and the bad, the various ways different systems work in other parts of the world, the differences between coalition and minority governments, and the way our current system exacerbates both the national unity problem and the defects of the Canadian political culture.

It's incredibly well done. Really, go listen--it's the first episode of 2006.