This article delineates the nature of peace activism in Canada in the immediate post‐World War 11 period. It contends that in the politically charged atmosphere of the Cold War any peace activism was, by definition, a highly politicized project. In turn, the range of dissent dictated by the postwar liberal “consensus” was narrowed dramatically. Consequently, peace activists who did not conform found themselves marginalized by a host of political and cultural forces, primarily the state and media. Negative responses to attempts by the Canadian Peace Congress to challenge aspects of the postwar order indicate how Western democracies view peace activism as dissent and how this dissent is marginalized and minimized through a variety of mecha