Roll of the Dice: Working with Clyde Wells during the Meech Lake Negotiations

J.L. Granatstein is a history professor at York University and author of
War and Peacekeeping and For Better or For Worse.

Deborah Coyne played a prominent role in the fight against the Meech
Lake and Charlottetown accords, but she still remains largely unknown.
This little book, a soberly written and straightforward account of her
part as Clyde Wells’s adviser on constitutional questions during the
Meech struggle, should let the public know more about her style.
Certainly that style was difficult. Her book is full of her admiration
for the Newfoundland premier but also of her disagreements with him. A
politician, albeit a principled one, Wells had to compromise on
occasion; Coyne was no politician and didn’t appreciate the necessity
of dealmaking. What does emerge from this volume is the utter duplicity
of Ottawa’s negotiators as they maneuvred to paint Wells the villain.
They succeeded with everyone except the mass of the Canadian public, and
if Wells found the courage to hang in, Coyne certainly merits some of
the credit. This is a most useful contribution to the history of a
failed constitutional negotiation.