There’s so much to ay about the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump on Saturday – and I’m not going to say any of it. Except hat I am surprised it hasn’t happened sooner.

And I am glad the attempt failed. I dislike a lot about Donald Trump, but if he is what the American people want, then that is their right. No individual should try and take away that right.

Politicians have been assassination targets for centuries, maybe as long as we have had politics. Possibly the best known one, before the 20th century and the media explosion that came with modern technology, was that of Roman Emperor Julius Caesar in 44 BC. You probably had to study Shakespeare’s play about Caesar in high school.

Americans of my vintage can tell you where they were when JFK was assassinated, and also when they heard about the murders of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Ronald Reagan was wounded by and assassin’s bullet, and Gerald Ford would have been killed if the would-be assassin had a round in the chamber when she fired.

Assassination is a tool of politics world-wide, as any student of history knows. The First World War was stared by an assassin’s bullet. Just two months ago the Prime Minster of Slovakia was critically wounded in an assassination attempt.

Even in sleepy Canada, politicians have on occasion had their lives ended by assassination. One of the fathers of our country, Thomas D’arcy McGee was was killed a block from Parliament before our nation was a year old. I have vivid memories of October 1970 and the killing of Quebec deputy premier Pierre Laporte. Both Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau were targets of assassination plots in the past decade.

As our societies have become more polarized in recent years, I would expect there to me more attempts on the lives of politicians, not fewer. Reasoned debate, the exchange of ideas and respect for opponents has been diminished where it hasn’t vanished altogether. Frustration seem to boil over more easily, and there isn’t the respect for law and order there once was. To me that creates a breeding ground for assassins.

That relatively few are successful is a tribute to the security forces charged with protecting politicians. When you think about it, they do a remarkable job against long odds.

Incidents like the one on Pennsylvania on Saturday, when Donald Trump came within inches of losing his life, have surely made all politicians wonder about they way they campaign. I wonder if the day is coming soon when you won’t ever get the change to meet a candidate for national office, or even a local election. For security reasons all campaigning will be done online.

I think that would be a shame. But I would rather see that than to see lives snuffed out by someone with a gun and an axe to grind.

Do you see a possibility to reverse the trend of politicians becoming targets? Your thoughts are welcome.