Yeah, but they don’t have any (or at least very, very few) gun-carrying crazies. Lowers the worry level a bit.
My Obama encounter: In which I meet the President and smooch the First Lady - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board
It does seem unlikely. I remember reading about how antsy the Secret Service got when Obama insisted on getting out of the limo and walk in his own inaugural parade. (I also have trouble imagining Trump wanting to go out and do ordinary things with ordinary people, but that’s a separate issue.)
Hmm, I missed seeing this somehow when first posted, Elendil’s Heir. Very interesting, and such a difference from my chance encounters with holidaying PM Trudeau and glad-handing PM Chrétien!
Big differences in accessibility.
I’d bet the percentage of gun-owning Newfoundlanders is higher than you think.
The Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador is the leader of fewer people than the mayors of ten Canadian municipalties. I’m sure it’s easy to meet the major of Brampton, too.
I have been within 50 feet of the Sultan of Oman with no security check on me at all. It was at an outdoor garden setting in Muscat.
I’ve been in a restaurant where the then Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, was dining. No obvious security anywhere. I’ve also been to road cycling events and seen a later Prime Minister, Tony Abbot, wandering around having a chat. Again, no obvious security.
France : not sure, in fact. At first I thought no, but then you attennded several events where the Canadian PM/queen was present, and I would assume that it might be similar if I attended this kind of event in France. Don’t know, really.
I also thought that two former French presidents (Chirac and Hollande) were both politicians elected in the very rural area I’m from myself, and in this area, I indeed can see myself bumping into them when they’re out for some reason (happened to my mother, in fact, who randomly ended up once dining besides Chirac, his wife and their friends), while I wouldn’t expect such a thing to happen in Paris or during some official visit in some city (like Merkel having a drink). But then again, maybe I could.
So, yes, not sure, in fact.
Reminds me of the finance minister of Luxemburg mentioning once that people who had an issue with his policies would sometimes just show up at his doorstep and ring the bell.
Hmmm…answered twice in the same thread, some months apart.
There have been far more attempts on the life of the Chancellor of Germany in the last 100 years than on the life of an American President.
I have been within a few feet of the current Pakistani PM and one former (and potential future) PM’s as well, over the weekend in a resturant actually for the latter.
I do wish people would stop saying “no security”, modern technology means that there is a lot of unseen security arrangements. Chances are you were seen and identified as no threat long before you ever saw the individual.
Here’s how lax security was for the British PM in 1964: How Alec Douglas-Home foiled student kidnappers with beer
About two years ago my wife and I were picnicking in St James Park when we saw Cameron jogging by.
I posted about a recent social meeting with Australia’s Head of State.
I’ve been on the same public bus (the 389 to Bondi) as our current PM Malcolm Turnbull.
At the '98 election I stood in a queue outside the polling booth along with PM John Howard.
I’ve been one of four passengers in a light plane with the then Acting PM Tim Fisher. He was going to a speaking engagement, I was going home for holidays.
During the years of the Fraser Government (1975–1983) in the summer holidays Doug Anthony was acting Prime Minister. He conducted the affairs of state from his holiday home on a beach-side block of land near Brunswick Heads on the NSW north coast. The block didn’t have a house so the Prime Ministers residence was a caravan. For much of that period, the caravan didn’t have a telephone so any governmental business in Canberra required him to use the public phone at the local general store.
Picking up the point about Angela Merkel at the top of the thread, there is a tale that during one mammoth EU heads of government get-together in Germany, Helmut Kohl’s people declined or cancelled a meeting with Margaret Thatcher because Kohl was too busy on other urgent government business (though of course he found her a bit much to bear anyway). And then some of her people saw him sitting in the window seat of a café eating the most enormous cream cake…
Here’s the tale of my encounter with the Prime Minister. I’ve met Prince Philip and Princess Anne. Security for Princess Anne was very low key. There were a couple of security people visible, but that was about it.
Norway here.
When she lived in Oslo, my sister would sometimes be on the same tube back from work as the then Prime Minister. Once he helped her get her baby carriage off the tube.
The previous King never really saw the point of minders. Not after the war anyway. He’d give us the slip if he felt like it. He firmly assumed that every citizen was a bodyguard.
The royals normally go to a normal school, get drafted and go through the recruit period with a random selection of people etc.
Here’s the Queen on her way to church. She frequently goes riding in the park as well. I remember reading about a woman who unfortunately drove her car into a tree. the first person to arrive was the Queen on horseback asking if she was alright. As people have said though a lot of the security is invisible. The ostentation of security is part of this discussion.