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It’s not known how many resulted in charges or convictions.

“In the back of our minds as a society, we have to keep in mind there are these individuals out there,” said Neil LeMay, who served as the Alberta government’s director of protection services from 2009 to 2013. “Sometimes we say it’s overkill (to investigate), but not only do we want our premier to avoid getting hurt, but we also want government officials to operate at their best.

“We don’t want people to shy away from difficult topics just because somebody is going to threaten them.”

Details on the nature of the threats and how they were handled were not disclosed, due to the need to maintain secrecy around security practices.

However, the documents show that up until recently, the executive protection unit categorized threats as low, medium or high. An explanation provided with the numbers said the categories reflected at least two different factors: the likelihood of someone making further negative comments toward the premier, and the odds of someone taking physical action.

In the 2003-15 period, the vast majority of the recorded threat incidents were graded as low, with just two rated as medium and two others rated as low-medium. The high category was never employed.

The statistics begin with a notorious incident in July 2003, when then-premier Ralph Klein was hit in the face with a banana cream pie while appearing at a Calgary Stampede breakfast.

“While a pie-throwing incident can seem amusing to some, at the time of the event, when you’re actually right there, there’s a lot of shock and uncertainty about what’s going to happen next,” Klein said at the time.