Baptists began as a Reformation movement in Western Europe founded on the conviction of a personal relationship with Christ and the belief that becoming a Christian is a choice proclaimed through the public immersion in water of adults, rather than infant baptism.  Named because of their baptismal practices, Baptists have long championed religious tolerance, the separation of church and state, the voluntary association of independent churches, and the marriage of evangelism and social justice.  Today, 46 million Baptists and 100 million adherents worship and serve God in every country in the world through 211 denominations, making Baptists the largest Protestant denomination in the world.  Almost 729,000 Baptists are the largest Protestant denomination in Canada.

As early as the 1760's, Baptists in Canada have been worshipping together and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.  Baptists have played key roles in activities as diverse as churches started by freed slaves in Nova Scotia, helping found Acadia and McMaster Universities and Brandon College, helping found the Mustard Seed Food Bank and Toronto's Young Street Mission. Notable Canadians such as Tommy Douglas, founder of health care, and Prime Minister John Diefenbaker were Baptists.

Baptists in western Canada began in Manitoba in the 1860's, organizing formally in 1884 with the establishment of the Baptist Convention of Manitoba and the Northwest. In 1887, British Columbian Baptists organized their own Convention.  These Conventions, and others, united to form the Baptist Convention of Western Canada in 1907.  The name was changed to the Baptist Union of Western Canada (BUWC) in 1909, by which it was known until 2007.  In 1944, the BUWC joined with the United Baptist Convention of the Maritimes and the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec to form the Baptist Federation of Canada (BFC) as a national coordinating body.  It was joined by l'Union d'Eglises Baptistes Francaises au Canada in 1970.  These four bodies remained federated until 1995 when the federation, by now renamed Canadian Baptist Federation (CBF) merged with Canadian Baptist Ministries, which now functions as the shared outreach arm of all four associations.

In 2007, the hundredth anniversary of our founding, the BUWC changed its name to the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada to better reflect its national identity and western focus.

Today, the CBWC has 178 churches in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.  Carey Centre, affiliated with  the UBC campus in Vancouver leads the CBWC's education ministry.  The Canadian Baptists of Western Canada have their head offices are in Calgary, Alberta.