This article reviews the positions taken by the Atlantic provinces in Canadian constitutional reform negotiations over the past 25 years. It is based on public statements and documents and interviews with advisors to Atlantic governments. The stereotypes of regional dependence on federal transfers and conservative political culture are challenged as explanations for Atlantic constitutional positions. Atlantic leaders have not acted as dependents of Ottawa. While seeking to preserve federal authority in fiscal and regional policy, these provinces have sought to make it more responsive through guarantees for equalization and regional development, and through more regionally sensitive intrastate institutions. In some fields, preserved or enhanced provincial authority has been sought. And at key junctures, regional leaders and populations have opposed and blocked federal government preferences. Conservative values are not evident in regional support for rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or aboriginal self-government, among other relatively progressive positions. Differences among these provinces and between individual leaders, plus a shortage of bureaucratic resources in intergovernmental affairs, have limited the coherence and effectiveness of Atlantic interventions at times. While no common regional position has emerged, certain key goals are reasserted frequently. Selected reforms to intrastate institutions and the interstate division of powers have been sought to facilitate the use of both federal and provincial authority to end these provinces’ “have-not” status.