Pretending it didn't on a technical level is disingenuous, they're the default second choice of the majority of people who don't vote for them.

Funny you say the party trying to improve democracy for everyone needed to listen to its own members only. "The voice of the majority needs to be heard! What? The majority doesn't want our solution? Forget it then!"

There are many options that lets us keep the current district system, I'm partial to an improved German system, same map, two votes, one for a local candidate and one for a general party, whoever wins locally gets their seat, more seats are added to bring the chamber to as proportional a representation as possible based on the second vote. An unlected leader gets the first seat for their party then the others seats are filled in order of the districts in which the party's candidates had the highest % of votes without winning. That means districts in which the race came very close would end up with two (or possibly more) candidates representing them.

I also always find it funny when the "candidate responsible to the constituency" argument gets brought up as if people didn't vote for a party and party lines didn't cancel all good intentions. How many conservatives who supported Charest and openly criticized PP left when PP became leader? One.