The middle years of the nineteenth century witnessed the virtually simultaneous births of a new nation and a new religion. The new nation was Canada and the new religion the Bahá’í Faith. For Canadian Bahá’ís, the pattern of coincidence that marks the outstanding dates of these two historical processes now seems something of a portent: to a remarkable extent, the Canadian nation has come to exemplify those ideals which the Bahá’í Faith holds to be the distinguishing characteristics of a sane and enlightened society. That Canada’s Parliament should have been the first sovereign legislature to recognize the institutions of our Faith by a formal Act (in 1949) is another token of this relationship, and one which Canadian Bahá’ís greatly treasure. It is this consonance of moral aims, more than any other factor, which has moved us to share a number of reflections with the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects of Canada.

Over a hundred years ago, Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, declared that our world was entering upon the age of its maturity, an age which will witness the establishment of a global society, the culminating stage in the long process of the unification of mankind:

"That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. . . . The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens." "This is the Day in which God’s most excellent favours have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused into all created things. . . .Soon will the present order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead."

The Bahá’í Faith does not see the process of the unification of mankind, a process which has inexorably gathered momentum since the above words were written over a century ago, as conflicting with any essential loyalties nor as stifling patriotism. Much less does it represent any threat to the survival of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the human race. On the contrary, we believe that only the institutions of a global society can truly protect these human resources. Unity in diversity has been and, we believe, will continue to be the organizing principle of social evolution.