In the most recent Canadian elections, the Liberal Party of Canada, one of the oldest and most dominant political parties in the world, lost badly and fell into irrelevance. That fall, however, may lead the country to adopt more democratic election reforms, and Canada could serve as a case study for how to do it.

When everyone across the political spectrum is this cynical about our politicians, the problem probably isn’t just our current batch of elected officials, but that design of the system itself.

A full 83 percent of Americans say our political system needs significant improvements. The question is, what are the sources of the problem and how do we fix it?

The U.S. is not an inherently divided country split between two ideologies. Nor do American voters actually want a two-party system; they don’t believe this offers a sufficient set of choices. This dichotomy is a result of our election system’s structure and will not change until are election laws are changed.