In November 1981, in what has been called the most important conference since the Fathers of Confederation got together in Quebec City in 1864, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau met behind closed doors in Ottawa with the ten premiers. It was the culmination of more than five decades of political wrangling, one last attempt to renew the constitution with the consent of the provinces. Given the threat of Quebec independence, the ambitions of Western Canada, and the provinces’ demands for more power, failure seemed the most likely result. But Trudeau was determined to make Canadians fully independent and to entrench a Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
What happened that day still reverberates. It severed the last important link to Canada’s colonial past. It guaranteed individual liberty and minority rights in the future. It gave ownership of the constitution to Canadians. But it came at a price.
In The Last Act, Ron Graham delivers a vivid account of the fractious debates and secret negotiations, based on newly uncovered documents and the candid recollections of many of the key participants.