But in the day-to-day lives of Canadians, probably the most significant feature of our Constitution is a new one - the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Most of the rights and freedoms we are enshrining in the Charter are not totally new and different. Indeed, Canadians have tended to take most of them for granted over the years. The difference is that now they will be guaranteed by our Constitution, and people will have the power to appeal to the courts if they feel their constitutional rights have been infringed upon or denied.
If the long and searching public debate leading up to patriation of the Constitution proved nothing else, it proved that Canadians need and want their rights and freedoms protected. Enshrining these rights in our Constitution is an essential part of that process.
We may find in the future that we want to improve and refine the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to strengthen the protection it provides for all our people.
With our own Constitution home in Canada, we are able to make those kinds of changes, as we see fit. We will do it by working together with all the partners in our federation, in the spirit of those who worked together for more than a century to make Canada a free and bountiful land.

Pierre Elliot Trudeau 1982