By Vivian Davidson-Castro
On July 15th this year the World Federalist Movement lost one of its most ardent, dedicated, and passionate supporters and advocates. Duncan Graham, a World Federalist of more than six decades, passed away surrounded by family in Gibson, BC at 92. Inspired by the similarities with the people he encountered on his trip with a friend to Africa and Europe in his twenties, Duncan realized that what unites us as humans is far greater than what divides us. From then on, he endeavoured to share his outlook for the unity of the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Humanity.
Duncan attended the first national conference of the World Federalists of Canada (St Sauveur Quebec, 1961). He helped found the Toronto World Federalist Branch, and in the 1990s helped revive the Vancouver branch. When I asked him what he would like his legacy to be, his response was that we continue the vision he passionately embodied in hopes that our common humanity would unite us once and for all.
Duncan was a proud Scotsman who often wore his kilt, shared a smile readily, picked up trash on the streets with walker in hand, and loved all unconditionally. He liked to quote Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Locksley Hall , “Till the war-drum throbb’d no longer, and the battle-flags were furl’d In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.”
May we live In Duncan Graham’s footsteps and cherish one another for the fellow humans we all are.
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