But PR is less democratic than FPTP
Bull. The exact opposite is true.
if MPs had more leeway to vote in the interests of their constituents rather than their party.
Here's the thing. Why don't they? FPTP in its basic design doesn't even require parties at all. Every local seat is filed by an election of individual candidates. Parties are an external institution to that completely. Theoretically speaking that should mean that MPs have all the leeway in the world to vote 'in the interests of their constituents' rather than their parties. So why not?
The first reason backbenchers have become so pointless isn't because they don't have power to do what they wish and ignore their party whips. They do. It's because of the nature of the world now. Voters
don't pay attention to local candidates and instead pay attention to party brands and party leaders in deciding who to vote for. That might not be how things should be in a FPTP election but that's how things are. The vast majority may be technically voting for Local candidate Joe Dumpernick of the Conservative party for example but what they're really voting for is STEPHEN HARPER Leader of the NEW CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA and everybody knows it. This doesn't have anything to do with FPTP really it's a function of the media driven world we're in. The leader is who we're exposed to on TV and in debates, you have to make a special effort to even see the local candidates in the community hall after work during a campaign and who does that?
The second reason has a lot to do with FPTP (and AV as well incidentally). What does a local candidate for a big party want? Do they want to get elected as a member of an opposition party? A government with a minority of seats? Or a majority government? Obviously the latter. Being a government backbencher is a WAY better gig than either of the other two and under the fucked up consequences of FPTP that dream is ALWAYS sort of attainable. You just have to get to around 38 % of the popular support and hopefully the rest of the vote will be split enough to get your team into FULL FUCKING POWER DO WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT WOOOOOO! Territory. Who will get you there? The leader. Getting your
party the majority is what you strive for.
And what are you going to do when you get there? Bite the hand that got you into the cushy job and got your chosen ideology the ability to rule unopposed and unchecked for the next few years? Hell no. The person on top got you and yours into the most powerful position and they're the ones who are probably going to be the face of and run the next campaign to maintain that full power and cushy positions as well. You going to undermine that by questioning dear leader?
That's not very possible in PR at all because to get full majority power to do whatever the fuck you want requires you to y'know ACTUALLY HAVE THE SUPPORT of the majority of Canadians and as that is incredibly hard to do the damaging consequences of the lust and temptation and corruption of an easily attainable full power false majority is severely reduced.
