I support MMP—one vote, one equal share in power. We need a voting system that doesn't distort the popular vote, which is not what we have right now. I've frequently voted for a party that I don't want because the vote for my first choice, the third or fourth most popular party, would earn me no representation in government. Strategic voting skews the exit polling numbers on party popularity in favour of the established parties and it gives them a false inflated endorsement and herds voters toward those parties, because no one wants their vote to be wasted. This creates inertia that favours established parties, stifling growth of less established parties. The system winnows out diversity of voices and cuts change off at the knees.
The elector must be given the tools to register their first preference for party representation untainted by compromises inherent in runoff balloting or strategic voting among local candidates. This means a separate vote solely on who your first-choice party is. The party must then be represented in the Commons and proportioned to its chair of that nationwide party preference vote by allocating extra seats after the local candidates have been elected.
The voting for local representatives must be a separate vote from the national popularity vote and it must not be first past the post either. Local candidates must be elected through some form of transferable vote, I suppose, so that each elected representative has at least 50% of the local riding's voter support.
I'm passionate about public policy, about building a better society, but even I have found myself so disgusted by the roulette wheel that is our voting system that I have been tempted a few times not to vote.
When we create a system that promises every vote will earn a share of the power, people will use it. This government got in on the promise to end first past the post before the next election. This contract is the foundation of this government's legitimacy.