Can someone perhaps explain to me in a nutshell why the Electoral College is a good idea?

Being Canadian, I’m used to the system that country has where by every voting district (riding) represents a seat in our House of Commons.

When the election occurs whichever party wins the majority of the seats gains power and the leader of that party (chosen by internal party vote at some point BEFORE the election) becomes Prime Minister.

So for example, let’s say these are the numbers from two different ridings, one in a major city and one in a smaller city:

Riding A (Bigger city)

Liberal: 82 477 votes
Conservative: 76 091 votes

Riding B (smaller city)

Liberal 12 337 votes
Conservative 13 183 votes

(as an aside, those are the ACTUAL party names. In Canada they are officially the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party.)

So in this example, each party comes away with one seat in the House.

Overall though, the Liberals have received over 5000 votes MORE than Conservatives (94 814 to 89 274). Now it’s my understanding that the comparison of pure votes is what is called the “popular vote” with regards to U.S. (and other) elections, while the electoral college determines the Presidency.

It’s also my understanding the electoral college is also designed to assure that population density does not play too strong a factor in influencing election outcomes.

Am I right?