The Brexit vote is an event that got very real, very quick. In the days since the Leave side won the referendum the political and social landscape in Britain has has been one tumultuous day after another, going from uncertainty and shock, to political careers ending, Labour finding itself in a deep crisis, market turmoil, and the insanely fast unravelling of the Leave campaign’s web of lies and deceit.

For a Canadian, what has played out since that fateful vote on June 23rd almost feels like the alternate ending to the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum. It was an event that had all Canadians on the edge of their seats, with No winning by a razor thin margin of 1.2%. Those numbers, 50.6% No and 49.4% Yes, are forever burned into many people’s memory. And looking at my Twitter feed Thursday night it was clear I was not the only Canadian having flashbacks to October 30th.

It is probably impossible for anyone to predict how this will impact Britain and Europe in the coming weeks, months, and years. People will academically, and emotionally, debate how it all came to be and what should happen next. For outsiders, we may have strong opinions about what happened, and when it comes to Britain’s future all we can do is watch. But for Canada there are still critical lessons that we need to take from this historical political event. Read More