A few days ago, the hallway outside my legislature office was overrun with a phalanx of fully armed police officers, busy training legislature staff in a nearby room on the finer points of security.
Things like dealing with an active shooter in the workplace, and how to outflank and disarm dangerous threats. Most of those being trained were legislature security officers (many of them former police officers themselves) while others were non-security staff.
As an official legislature earthquake warden (someone in every office has to be one), I've attended a course myself on how to deal with an armed intruder.
It's worth noting that when I began working at the B.C. legislature in the 1980s, security was almost non-existent. There were no locked doors - anyone could just wander into a cabinet minister's office - and the entire building was accessible to the public (except when the legislature was actually in session).
Today, visitors must go through a screening device (i.e. a metal detector) and half the building is closed to the public. All office doors are locked at all times and legislature security staff now wear full body armor and carry a holstered firearm.
This significant ramp-up in security measures didn't happen overnight. Changes have been phased in over time, but security has become significantly tighter in the past year.
Now, I'm not complaining. As someone who works on the legislative grounds, I appreciate that well-trained security personnel have my safety in mind.
On several occasions over the years, legislature security have come to my aid while I was doing a live television report or conducting an interview on the grounds.
There are a number of people who have been identified as potential problems and who are banned from the grounds. People make all kinds of threats to public figures, though most of those threats are never made public.
But the advent of social media does cast a public spotlight on some of those threats. And the ascension to the top political leadership jobs in Alberta and B.C., by two women, seems to have heightened those threats.
In Alberta, NDP Premier Rachel Notley has been the target of numerous death threats and promises of violence (many more than her predecessors) all posted on Facebook and other social media outlets.
At a recent golf tournament put on by the Big Country Oilmen's Association, a large reproduction of Notley's face was used as a target in the middle of the fairway, as golfers were invited to hit it or run over it in their carts.
Judi Tyabji, the author of a new biography of B.C. Premier Christy Clark, says she was partly motivated to write the book after witnessing the ugly attacks against Clark as a result of the premier's ill-advised attempt to have an"Om the Bridge" yoga event on Vancouver's Burrard Street bridge in the summer of 2015.
She notes a Facebook page was created for a proposed "event" (with more than 900 attendees) which would feature the mock beheading of Clark and the skinning alive of one of the yoga event's sponsors. Tyabji reported it to police as a hate crime.
The deterioration of rational public discourse has been noted south of the border as we watch the rise of Trumpism, or the ugliness that characterized the recent Brexit referendum in Great Britain (which included the murder of a British MP).
The U.S. presidential primary campaigns and the Brexit campaign were both characterized by coarse, vitriolic attacks by many people, of all political persuasions. it wasn't just a case of "dumbing down" by people, it was a case of "hating up."
But don't think we in Canada are immune to this alarming trend. We're not: just check out various social media outlets, the blogosphere and the comments sections posted after articles on many media outlets' web sites.
Violent threats and violent forms of language are becoming more and more common in the political arena, and we are all the poorer for it.
Which is why I expect to see more training exercises outside my office in the months ahead, and a further tightening of security at "the people's house."
It's the new reality.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C.
