What PEI can learn from Brexit

Article by Paul MacNeill for PEICanada.com, published June 29, 2016.

“In the lead up to Britain’s referendum on whether or not to leave the European Union, a poll showed that a majority had very little knowledge about the union or their country’s role in it. Still 52 per cent, 17 million plus strong, voted to leave.

It is a result that will likely trigger a stampede of nationalistic rhetoric elsewhere and with it an equal amount of instability. Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU, England and Wales strongly for leaving. The United Kingdom may not be so united for long.

All because Prime Minister David Cameron decided it more important to risk the country in a referendum simply to appease members of his Conservative Party. There was no legal requirement to hold last week’s vote, it has much to do with silencing political foes as it did gauging the desires of Britons.

But it backfired. Spectacularly.

And that is what happens when politicians use plebiscites or referendums as an out clause.”

Read the story here.