Will more MPs cure what ails us?

I added my two cents to the discussion, started here by Alan Broadbent and reinforced here by Andrew Potter, that argued that more MPs would help "reclaim the House of Commons" and "make for more accountable government."  By enlarging the size of party caucuses, so the argument goes, we'd both loosen the grip of the Prime Minister and create more safe seats.  The prior would allow for more debate and happier MPs, and the latter would enable MPs to gain a) independent bases of power, so they could stand up to their leader and b) greater knowledge of how the system works.

In short, I'm not entirely convinced of the problem or efficacy of the solution.  I'm all for more effective MPs and wish we had better public debates Parliament.  I spend lots of time trying to give our country a better fact base upon which to discuss these matters, but I'm just not sure more MPs will get us there. This solution overlooks what we already know about why MPs don't stick around, and ignores any discussion of the implications that would arise from a less-open system.

The arguments also ignore the role of caucus and cabinet meetings, which are the closed-door meetings where politicians hash it out among themselves.  They're no replacement for good Parliamentary debate, mind you, but the truth is we simply don't know what goes on there. There could be a lot more dissention and debate that we realize, but it's just not aired for the media to tear apart. But maybe it should be.

It's also worth noting that there were some pretty large caucuses during the Chretien years, and that some of the safest seats in the country are held by Conservatives (whose incumbency rates are nearly 100%), and neither fact appears to have created a situation like that envisioned by Broadbent or Potter.

On a related note, there are other arguments for increasing the size of the House, such as improving its representativeness, but those are different.  It's worth perusing this post, where Aaron Wherry curates a few of the recent articles on the topic (including my own), and his readers debate their relative merits.