Britain votes tomorrow on change to its voting system, just two days after the news today from Canada demonstrated, as graphically as anything could, why change is necessary. But the insularity and intellectual poverty of the referendum debate is such that the lesson is unlikely to be heeded.

Stephen Harper, Canada's Conservative prime minister in a minority government for the past two terms, finally won a majority in Monday's general election -- 167 seats out of 308. But it came courtesy of the electoral system, not the voters.