Man down

Thoughts on Keir Starmer, Mark Carney and a post-Brexit world of constant crisis

“…or are they shadows of things that May be, only?”

Ten years ago, on June 24, 2016, I was new in what would turn out to be a short stint at the Toronto Star, driving between Ottawa and Oshawa on family business, and trying to digest the returns from the previous day’s Brexit referendum. It hadn’t gone as I’d hoped.

“I think I need to write about this,” I said to an editor I was still getting to know.

“Actually, I think somebody else is already writing about Brexit,” my editor said.

“Look, just as a subscriber, if there’s anybody in tomorrow’s paper who doesn’t write about Brexit, I’ll be upset,” I said. Sometimes I think this situation where I’m the only writer who’s stuck working with me was the inevitable end of things.

Anyway, I got to write about Brexit. I used much of my space to write that the European Union and its advocates needed to share some of the blame. I admire the EU, but if such a powerful generator of peace and prosperity couldn’t make a case for itself, then that wasn’t only the fault of its detractors.

I believe the Brexit adventure has slowed Britain’s economic growth. This chart from a Guardian article based on a paper from several economists makes that case:

Soon after the Brexit vote, I learned that a large number of Canadian Conservatives — I mean probably six or 10, not hundreds — had gone to the UK to campaign for the Leave side. The timing was propitious: Conservatives had lost the previous autumn’s federal election, they were out of office in Ontario and Alberta. There weren’t a lot of outlets for Conservatives’ energies. Door-knocking and desk work over ’ome was an obvious outlet.