after the referendum, trudeau acted upon his promise by calling together the provincial premiers in a first ministers' conference. the meeting showed signs of deadlock, and lévesque surprised observers by uniting with the dissident premiers, who warmly received his decentralist views. facing a lack of cooperation from the premiers, trudeau then announced his intention to unilaterally patriate the constitution from the united kingdom and have a charter of rights and constitutional amending formula approved by national referendum.