I really do not buy this idea that a well-run referendum would not lead to an informed vote. I think if we are at the stage where we believe that.... You could say many of those same things about general elections, and no one is suggesting we stop having those. The Brexit example has come up a lot recently because of some of the fallout there. I'm not sure that's an apt example, because you have an unprecedented situation there in which the long-term benefits and costs of Brexit are really unpredictable.
We know what different electoral systems do, and we have evidence that when Canadians are presented with options, as we've seen in citizens' assemblies in Ontario and British Columbia, they can very readily wrap their heads around the details of those systems. I think the better comparative example is New Zealand, which actually had a multi-stage referendum process that successfully achieved reform. If anything, the problem with that process was that it was stacked against reform just by virtue of the way it was structured, and still New Zealanders were somehow able to come together and consider the alternatives and choose one. I like to think Canadians are as capable as New Zealanders in that regard.