Elgin Street in Ottawa with the National War Memorial at its head is a 4,000-kilometre drive from 50th Avenue in Olds, Main Avenue Sundre, 10th Avenue Carstairs, 20th Street Didsbury and 50th Street Innisfail.
On Oct. 22 that distance shrank to zero with the murder of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, as he guarded the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Self-radicalized domestic terrorist and coward Michael Zehalf-Bibeau shot Cpl. Cirillo as he stood in the “arms reversed, head bowed” stance, the military's way of honouring a fallen comrade – with an empty rifle.
Two days earlier, another domestic radical and coward, Martin “Ahmad the Convert” Rouleau, murdered Warrant Officer Patrick Vincent at Saint Jean Sur Richelieu in Quebec.
Countless times I walked up Elgin, then crossed the War Memorial plaza en route to my favourite bookstores in Byward Market during the two years Florence and I lived in Ottawa.
So, I took Zehalf-Bibeau's attack personally.
The death of Cpl. Cirillo reminded me of the murder of kidnapped Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte by FLQ terrorists the weekend after Thanksgiving, 1970.
The invocation of the War Measures Act followed, then faded from memory as the country got back to normal.
The FLQ gang that killed Laporte and kidnapped British diplomat James Cross were failed petty criminals.
Zehalf-Bibeau was also a failed petty criminal.
What happened on Elgin Street and in the House of Commons hallway, when genuinely brave men killed Zehalf-Bibeau, brought a new normal to Canada.
I entered the United States two days after 9/11, past the armed military at the Sweet Grass, Mont. border crossing.
Previously crossing into the U.S. had been relaxed and friendly.
Once, I talked to an American border official about my books to while away a quiet midnight hour.
After 9/11 frosty formality and suspicion marked the business of crossing the border.
Canada has been a terrorist target since 9/11, but after last week what the government, police and security apparatus must do to protect the nation hereafter will forever change our self-perception and way of life.
Frank Dabbs is a veteran business and political journalist, author of three biographies, and a contributor to, researcher or editor of half a dozen books.
