Romanow was a close personal friend to Pierre Trudeau and still is with Jean Chrétien. During the 1981 discussions over the repatriation of the Canadian constitution it was these three men who worked out most of Canada's new constitution at the famous late night kitchen table discussion. Romanow helped push the constitution to the left, he objected strongly to any protections on private property in the new Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and none were included.
On November 7, 1987 Mr. Romanow replaced Allan Blakeney as leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party. When the party won the 1991 Saskatchewan election, he became premier of Saskatchewan. He retired in 2001, and was replaced by Lorne Calvert as premier.
The Liberals, and especially Chrétien have long tried to encourage Romanow to run federally as a Liberal, but he has always refused. Instead on April 4, 2001, Roy was appointed to head the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. Roy released the Romanow Report in 2002, which outlined suggestions to improve health care facilities.