Document Information
Date: 1982-01-27
By: Brian Peckford
Citation: Letter from Brian Peckford, Premier to Right Hon. P.E. Trudeau (27 January 1982).
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Note: This document is discussed in an article that has been recently submitted to a peer-review journal.
2033 G35
THE PREMIER
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVINCE OF NEWFOUNDLAND ANO LABRADOR
1982 01 27
Right Honourable P.E. Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
My dear Prime Minister:
Please find attached a copy of the set of relevant documents that I collected at last November’s successful Constitutional Conference. It is my intention to make the set public, but as a courtesy I felt I might send you a copy with this covering letter.
Included in this set is a paper from British Columbia, which, while circulated among certain Premiers and discussed between yourself and Premiers Bennett, Lougheed and Buchanan on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 3, 1981, was never formally tabled at the First Ministers Conference. As well, there is the Saskatchewan proposal that was tabled at midmorning on Wednesday, November 4, 1981. As well, please find attached a copy of a proposal tabled by New Brunswick on the matter of the Charter of Rights.
I should point out that by late Wednesday morning I had the disquieting feeling that the meetings and documents up to that time were falling short of the various degrees of compromise required on the different issues to effect a general consensus. However, I had also developed by that time a feeling that individually, the vast majority of the First Ministers were expressing such willingness to compromise that there had to be a consensus in there somewhere. Out of these musings I drafted the one page “Draft Compromise” hereto attached about midday on Wednesday. In consultation with my
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delegation, I expanded that one piece of paper into a couple of pages with more detail, and member of my delegation began to circulate that document (the second in the set attached) among various other delegations after supper on Wednesday, November 4, 1981. Progress w s m d by members of my delegation, and about midnight they request d I join a group at a suite in the Chateau Laurier. Thus I joined a late night meeting of officials and three Premiers, namely Blakeney, Buchanan and MacLean. The net result of Wednesday night’s work was the document entitled: “Constitutional Proposal submitted by Government of Newfoundland…” (third in the attachment), which I presented to the full First Ministers Conference on the morning of Thursday, November 5, 1981. What developed from my document was, of course, the Constitutional Accord, signed by ten of the eleven Governments, about midday on Thursday, November 5, 1981.
Prime Minister, although I did not share all of your views on the Constitutional issue, I did share your intensity of feeling about the importance of it. As the fateful conference wore on, I was, as I stated earlier, alarmed at the lack of consensus arising out of the abundance of expressed desires to compromise. I was pleased and honoured to hear your kind remarks to me at the close of the Conference. I was proud to have been able to synthesize a consensus. It could not have been done, however, without the desire for compromise expressed by yourself and all but one of the Premiers.
In conclusion, therefore, I hope that these few words and attachments will be of use and/or interest to you. Canada, I’m sure, is much the better for the events described above.
I remain,
Sincerely yours
A. BRIAN PECKFORD
PREMIER
cc – Provincial Premiers