Canadians were very concerned by the Cold War. We had our own red scare, civil defense tours and videos, and military build-up.

It is worth noting that Canada wasn't 'caught' between the two sides - Canada was very much an American ally. Canada was a founding member of NATO and the other half of NORAD. Canadian army divisions were in Germany, Canadian navy destroyers patrolled the north atlantic for soviet subs, Canadian air patrols covered the arctic. Multiple air defense lines were built across the Canadian north to watch for soviet bombers. American nuclear weapons were stored on Canadian soil. The Canadian state fought on one side of the cold war.

As for the public at large, Canadians were scared, particularly very early in the cold war. One of the first flash points of the cold war happened here - the Gouzenko affair. A russian clerk at the Soviet embassy defected with documents outlining soviet espionage. The resulting red scare led to the imprisonment of many Canadian communists, as well as a purge of the civil service of anyone considered suspicious. It wasn't till the FLQ crisis of the late 1960s would the RCMP move on from hunting internal communists.

Canadian provincial politicians were regularly able to whip up anti-communist sentiment and fears of the soviets to win votes through the late 1940s and early 1950s (George Drew, Social Credit in BC...)

As the Cold war dragged on Canadians's lost much of the intensity of their early cold war fears. The conflict became more abstract as Canadians were distracted by their own internal issues (the constitutional dramas of the 1968-1995 period) Further, a mood of deep anti-americanism struck the country during the 1960s and 1970s, leading to a desire to be more open minded to the Soviets and communists in general - detente was popular here. By the 1980s alot of the passionate fear was gone - Canada never had the same revivial of cold war rhetoric as American did with Regan and all the 'tear down this wall' stuff.

Source: Senior undergradate seminar and "Cold War Canada: the Making of the National Security State 1945-1957" by Gary Marcuse and Reginald Whitaker

I once read through the minutes of the Canadian Chiefs of Staff committee meetings (which included the heads of the three branches of the military as well as the Minister of National Defence) from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. Defence from Russian nuclear bombers was the chief concern for the Canadian military and the reason why the Royal Canadian Air Force ate up half the total defence budget. This included the ultimately catastrophic development program of an interceptor aircraft, the CF-105 Arrow.

During this time period, a Russian nuclear attack on America would have come from over the north pole. It would be impossible for Canada to stay out of a nuclear war as the Russian bombers would travel over Canadian territory even if their target was the US. Canada's position was essential for the overall air defence of North America since it was the air theatre where Russian bombers could be intercepted over undeveloped lands. Canada hosted a number of early-warning radar lines such as the DEW line. Also, the second-in-command of NORAD was and remains a Canadian.

One interesting side note from my research was that, during this time, the Canadian military decided to focus their air defences entirely on Canada's industrial heartland in Ontario and Quebec. All other areas of Canada were to be primarily defended by Americans, however, the expectation was that cities like Winnipeg, Moose Jaw and Saskatoon in the Canadian west which held critical military installations would certainly be wiped out by a Russian attack. Of course, this specialization of air defence areas was allowed by the integrated North American air defence plans between the USA and Canada through NORAD.

The maple syrup reserves, no, but there were preparations made in case of a nuclear war and the fallout thereof, at least for some governmental and military officials. The Federal government, under Diefenbaker, constructed a number of bunkers (and in our cheekiness, we named them Diefenbunkers) across the country. The article on the Emergency Government Headquarters can tell you more about the various headquarters across the country, from Debert, Nova Scotia to Nanaimo, British Columbia. They've been decommissioned since, and you can visit a few of them (the one in Ottawa, at least; I'm not sure about the others).

The Canadian military also engaged in training in the Arctic following the Second World War, dubbed Operation Muskox. It had the dual benefit of both preparing the military for any possible over-Arctic battles, as well as displaying how difficult such warfare would be, and decreasing the fear of such a thing happening.

There's more detailed information on Canada during the Cold War in general here, though it is a wikipedia article and should be read with a grain of salt or two; still, it seems to be largely accurate.

There was a bit of the anti-Communist mania that filled the United States, as well, though not to the same degree; it led to things such as the suicide of E. Herbert Norman, and the RCMP's spying on Rita MacNeil.

So, it wasn't really the case that Canada was "between a rock and a hard place", but rather that Canadians were part of the defense of North America as a whole from the Soviet Union, and took an active part in the resistance to the spread of Communism, though in a less McCarthyistic manner. Fear during the Cold War led to the [creation of]((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO#Beginnings) NATO (in part, at least; there were other reasons for its creation as well). Canada also had a store of nuclear weapons (discussed a bit in the aforementioned wikipedia article on Canada in the Cold War) in order to help defend North America in case such a war were to break out.