One of the witnesses at the open mike last night in Halifax said to us that in a time when you have long-term issues and need a long-term view—like species extinction or climate change—the policy lurches of having a government in for a while and it swinging to the other side with a complete change of policy doesn't work. The kind of voting system—like first past the post—that creates this swing from hard left to hard right, for instance, doesn't work particularly well when looking at issues that require a long-term view, like whether we are fishing sustainably or planning for what is going to happen with climate change 20 years from now.
I don't know if this is something that has ever struck you. I have to say that I hadn't thought of any connection between proportional representation and fisheries policy until Greg Malone mentioned it earlier today.