Because it could so easily have been here.

When terrorists have struck in the United States and even England, it has been easy for Australians to comfort themselves that the targets have been the major players on the world stage.

The US has long been regarded as the western world’s police force and, more often than not, England has been the deputy.

Even under John Howard, Australia tended to be only a peripheral player in the war on terror and we always expected to be well down the pecking order of terror targets.

One would think Canadians felt the same – until yesterday, that is.

When a lone gunman shot dead a Canadian soldier before entering the nation’s parliament in Ottawa, he showed that terror can strike anywhere. And that is its true power.

Regardless of how much security surrounds our national monuments and how much is spent on surveillance, there will always be the opportunity for a single crazed man or woman – with no regard for their own wellbeing – to launch an attack.

And, increasingly, it is these “lone wolf” attacks that most concern western officials.

As always, though, the antidote to terrorism must be our society’s refusal to be cowed. While our hearts recoil at the horror of these attacks, our heads tell us they remain very, very rare.

Our best response is to acknowledge that while the world is a different place to just a generation ago, we are still the same.

We must not let the minuscule threat of encountering terrorism distract us from the joys that come with living in a free democracy.

A small minority may wish to change the way we live our lives. The vast majority must ensure they cannot do so.