ABSTRACT
The approximate 25-year hiatus between high points in neutralist leanings in Canada would seem to suggest, at least at first glance, the utility of an explanatory analysis that focuses on generational change. William Lyon Mackenzie, writing in 1962, referred to this issue as "the most controversial in the contemporary discussion of Canada's foreign policy." Quite plausibly, the ultimate resolution of the Canadian alignment-versus-neutrality debate will be determined by the fashion in which the stresses attending that testing are resolved. While there are elements of evolutionary generational change that do appear to be operative in the Canadian case, the periodic waxing and waning of neutralist sentiment points to some larger, more encompassing, phenomenon in the conditioning environment as a plausible driving force. The ultimate Canadian response to the changes in prospect might be to consolidate the Canadian Forces in a "home guard."
