En cette année référendaire de 1980, les ténors fédéralistes, par la bouche de Claude Ryan dans son livre beige, réclamaient l'abolition de la Chambre haute.
We know that during the period surrounding the Charlottetown negotiations the consensus was generally in favour of abolishing the Senate (1535) This consensus had been reached much earlier, however, in 1980, the year of the referendum. At that time, the key federalist players, as represented by Claude Ryan in his beige paper, were calling for the abolition of the Upper House.