As Canadians marked Remembrance Day with ceremonies across the country this weekend, an online petition seeking a state funeral for the last Great War veteran swelled to more than 65,000 signatures.
The petition calls for the Prime Minister to honour the country's First World War dead with the kind of ceremony normally reserved for former heads of government.
The campaign was launched by the Dominion Institute last week, and mirrors an Australian initiative that saw the last veteran of the Battle of Gallipoli buried in a state funeral in 2005. The petition has grown from nearly 50,000 signatures at the end of last week.
A Dominion Institute poll released Saturday said 74 per cent of respondents were in favour of offering the family of the last surviving First World War veteran a state funeral, while 27 per cent were opposed to any form of special commemoration.
This year's Remembrance Day ceremonies were all the more poignant as the names of soldiers killed in Afghanistan were added to Canada's monuments.
In Toronto, First World War veterans Lloyd Clemett, 106, and Dwight Wilson, 105, were among 500 veterans and hundreds of others at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre's Warriors' Hall for a wreath ceremony.
As the band played, Mr. Wilson tapped his knee and added his voice to O Canada and God Save the Queen.
Mr. Clemett, Mr. Wilson and 106-year-old John Babcock, who now lives in Spokane, Wash., are the last three surviving Canadian veterans from the Great War.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper commented briefly on the surviving First World War veterans.
"There's been a lot of talk this year about the fact there are still three World War I veterans living and I think we should cherish every moment they're still with us," he said.
In Ottawa, Alice Murphy, this year's Silver Cross Mother, stood before the national war memorial and made the sign of the cross. Her son, 26-year-old Corporal Jamie Murphy, was killed by a suicide bomber in Kandahar in January, 2004.
As Silver Cross Mother, Ms. Murphy represents all mothers whose children have died in military service.
In Newfoundland, the home of an 85-year-old Second World War veteran was robbed this weekend, shortly after the man died of cancer.
Fred Vokey, who volunteered as a gunner in the British navy, died Friday, after spending his last days at his grandson's house in Kelligrews, southwest of St. John's. The next day, his grandson found the door to Mr. Vokey's home kicked in, dresser drawers dumped and money, jewellery, silverware and prescription painkillers missing.
"It's just terrible for someone to do that to an old man, a war veteran, and right on Remembrance Day," said Mr. Vokey's daughter, Gaynor Power.
"When you think about how many young Newfoundlanders that signed up, volunteered . . . to fight for their country, and to have this happen, it's very upsetting."
With a report from Canadian Press
