Hatfield and the Crown

How the Premier of New Brunswick secured the future of the Crown:

Every time the queen comes to Canada, and this is her 24th visit, polls show Canadians indifferent to the crown, with many favouring its abolition. Tell us something we don't know.

It isn't going to happen. And proponents of our constitutional monarchy have Richard Hatfield to thank for it.

"I got the queen in there," Hatfield, then premier of New Brunswick, said delightedly at his hotel suite in Ottawa in November 1981, following the conclusion of the talks that led to the patriation of the Constitution from Westminster with the Charter of Rights.

Rene Levesque and Quebec went home empty-handed, but Hatfield got the queen entrenched in the constitutional amending formula, requiring unanimous consent of Ottawa and the provinces for any change to her role and status.

Much to the chagrin of Canada's then Prime Minister, a crypto-republican, Pierre Trudeau. Sometimes the good guys do win.