Laying the ghost of electoral reform

The appeal of proportional representation is persistent; polling shows strong support for it. Yet elaborately prepared and promoted proposals for proportional representation were roundly rejected by voters in referendums in Prince Edward Island in November 2005, in Ontario in October 2007, and in British Columbia in May 2009. We shall not hear the last of proportional representation specifically, and electoral reform generally, until we understand why it is an entirely bad idea.