I don't think pure proportional representation should be the way to go, but proportional rep should at least be integrated some way or another.
Yes there is a way.
The problem with most proposals for change are that they are either too much of an overhaul of the system, or they end up reproducing the same problem only in a different form, or it involves statistical processes that Joe-Canuck cannot understand; (evidently Joe-Canuck would rather have a broken system he can understand than a working system he can't understand (a textbook example of people getting the government they deserve).
I requires only two relatively simple changes while leaving the vast majority of the existing system untouched, yet those two little changes would have a *huge* effect in terms of making representation in parliament more democratically reflective of the actual demographics of the population.
Basically, you take the Senate, which is already there and which is supposed to be the sober second-sight of Parliament, and make it so it can actually do the job it's supposed to do.
You make it so after each election, the seats in the Senate get redistributed according to popular vote. It means parties like the Greens, which might not get any seats in the Commons, would still get 8-9 seats in the Senate according to popular vote
It means even if someone like Harper gets a majority in the House of Commons with a minority of Canadian support because everyone else is fragmented into too many parties, if he tries to railroad through legislation that the majority of Canadians hate, then their Senators can gang up and block it.
The second change, which is small and easy to do, but which would have a *huge* effect in terms of the effects, would be to drop the provision saying the Senate can only block legislation two times, but must let it pass on the third reading.
The way it is now, if Harper were to push through legislation that even Conservative Senators can't stand, such that they join with the others to stop it, they can only stop it twice.
By making so the Senate doesn't have to pass legislation on third reading, it will actually has some teeth.
Making those changes also meets halfway those who don't like the way Senators can get appointed for life and are "unelected".
If the Senate has to get shaken up with seats in the Senate re-appointed every election, no Senator has his seat as a de-facto paid-retirement chair, and his seat there is going to be a function of popular vote.
That's all you have to do. Make it so Sentator seats get appointed as a percentage of popular vote after each election, and make it so Senators don't have to pass a bill after third reading if the majority of them don't like it.
