Today the predatory state, or the predatory group of states, with power of total destruction, is no more to be tolerated than the predatory individual.

Whether we live together in confidence and cohesion; with more faith and pride in ourselves and less self-doubt and hesitation; strong in the conviction that the destiny of Canada is to unite, not divide; sharing in cooperation, not in separation or in conflict; respecting our past and welcoming our future.

Understanding the nature of conflict leads to peace.

The grim fact is that we prepare for war like precocious giants, and for peace like retarded pygmies.

The choice, however, is as clear now for nations as it was once for the individual: peace or extinction.

As we enter our centennial year we are still a young nation, very much in the formative stages. Our national condition is still flexible enough that we can make almost anything we wish of our nation. No other country is in a better position than Canada to go ahead with the evolution of a national purpose devoted to all that is good and noble and excellent in the human spirit.

The scientific and technological discoveries that have made war so infinitely more terrible for us are part of the same process that has knit us all so much more closely together.