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MISSISSAUGA – Suddenly the warning that “somebody’s going to get shot” doesn’t sound so preposterous.

Michael Wernick, the former clerk of the Privy Council, cautioned last spring that the state of public political dialogue in this country could result in assassination. The admonition was dismissed as hyperbole.

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But the events at a Mississauga conference hall on Saturday night, where Justin Trudeau emerged 90 minutes late for a mass rally wearing a protective vest, have borne him out.

The election that has been about nothing was in danger of becoming about everything.

Trudeau was due to take the stage at 5pm to speak to the biggest Liberal rally yet, in front of 30 candidates and around 2,000 supporters.

After an hour, the Liberal leader had still not shown up and the crowd was getting restless. Navdeep Bains, who as MP for Mississauga Malton was host for the evening, started in on another anecdote about how great it is to be Canadian before being shouted down by his own supporters.