I don't know if I buy that. It was part of their platform, but it was not a 'major' part. It was never focused on, never any real thought given to it, no proposal as to what it would be. The last Canadian election run on a single issue was likely NAFTA when Mulroney won, something as important to Canada as electoral reform really needed to be debated during the election to be considered 'major'.
I just worry that we're imposing a new system on Canadians that many will not see as legitimate. Once our system loses it's legitimacy, we're in trouble as a country.
What happens if the "Ontario-Quebec" party forms and controls parliament permanently? How would that impact the west ? A new voting system could risk the existence of Canada.
Perhaps you weren't paying enough attention, but it was a major part of their platform. There was plenty of back and forth between Harper and Trudeau regarding electoral reform and several questions at the debates as well. It's just plain ignorant if you think that there wasn't debate on electoral reform, in fact, one of the MAJOR talking points for the Liberals was 'this will be Canada's last FPTP election', I heard it repeated so much it made me want to barf.
Sticking you head in the sand and claiming that there hasn't been any debate on this is just bullshit.
As for Western alienation, I felt just as alienated by the Conservatives as I do by the Liberals. The Cons just concentrated on Alberta and ignored anything west of the Rockies just as much as any other party would have. Other than trying to ram through approval and circumventing environmental review for an unwanted pipeline to Kitimat, the Conservatives didn't give two shits about BC.
You're also making a bunch of assertions about proportional representation to make it seem scarier than it will likely be. Have you actually looked at how PR works in Countries that have implemented it? Because your examples, like a fictional Ontario/Quebec party, are trash. Germany's MMPR is a great example that could work for Canada, or even a single transferable vote system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT0I-sdoSXU
A referendum is just a back channel way of killing reform, and the Cons know it, because the Conservatives are obviously against it, because it eliminates the benefits of splitting the left vote that has kept them in power to-date, and die hard Liberals don't want it now because they're forming a majority government and it's against their best interest. I was actually shocked that Trudeau moved forward with electoral reform after winning a majority, I figured that they would have killed it and wrote it off as a hollow election promise.