According to Gord from the SONGBOOK notes:
2/1. SIT DOWN YOUNG STRANGER
It's a protest song. I wrote a few protest songs, but I felt it was kind of silly for me to write protest songs, being a Canadian. After all, people could say, "What the hell is a Canadian doing protesting against an American problem?" It's tantamount to cashing in on a sensitive American situation, but I decided to do it in a subtle way. I think this one really worked, though, because I knew what I was talking about. Three-quarters of the way through it, I hit on the core statement: "War is not the answer, and young men should not die." Everything I say before that leads up to that observation. It just works.
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