An online petition calling for a state funeral for the last veteran of the First World War passed the 43,000-signature mark Friday and is rising by the hour, organizers said.

The Dominion Institute hopes to have 50,000 signatures before Remembrance Day ceremonies on Saturday.

First World War veteran gunner Percy Dwight Wilson, 105, waves goodbye following a media availability in the veteran's wing at Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto last week.
(Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

Rudyard Griffiths, the institute's director, said the death of the last veteran of the Great War will be a "watershed moment" for the country and should be front and centre for all Canadians.

Of the 619,636 Canadians who served in the First World War, three are still alive: Percy Dwight Wilson, 105, and Lloyd Clemett and John Babcock, both 106.

"When that last veteran dies, when the living link is severed between one of the defining events in our country's history and who we are as a country today, will we still remember?" Griffiths asked.

He said the need for this type of big gesture is highlighted by results from an annual quiz the institute releases each year.

More modern Canadian history classes needed: Griffiths

Of the 1,000 Canadians who answered this year's four question quiz on the First World War, 42 per cent passed, the institute said.

Twenty-five per cent said U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was a Canadian war hero, while 30 per cent were able to identify flying ace Billy Bishop and General Sir Arthur Currie as Canadians.

Griffiths said modern Canadian history should be required in classrooms across the country.

"Only four provinces require high school students to take a chronological 20th century history course," he said. "If you don’t teach it, kids ain't gonna learn it."

"I think that's what's happening."