I mentioned when I started that the Dominion Institute made its first splash when it was originally founded, back in 1997, with a survey that measured Canadians' knowledge, or lack thereof, of their history. It showed that only half of Canadians knew who Sir John A. Macdonald was. It was our biggest headline.
From there we've been doing public opinion research over the years, but I don't want to bore you with reams and reams of data. I'd be happy to share any of our research with you. It's all available on our website. I want to show you three trends and to focus on three aspects.
One is what we've found over the course of the 12 years of the institute's existence among the general population with regard to their knowledge of military history. Then I want to talk a bit about Canadians' attitudes toward remembrance. And then I'll talk about a survey of our Memory Project: veteran volunteer.
Over the first 10 years of the institute's existence, we found that generally, despite our best efforts, unfortunately Canadians' knowledge of political history in this country has declined. If you look at questions such as how many Canadians know the year of Confederation and who Canada's first Prime Minister was, given a multiple choice, that's gone down.
What we found somewhat encouraging, particularly with regard to our efforts with the Memory Project, is that generally Canadians' knowledge of our military history, over the period of 1997 to 2007, went up. It went up slightly, modestly, but it improved. We certainly can't take all the credit for that. There have been popular education campaigns, which the committee would be well aware of: the 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge; the Year of the Veteran, back in 2005. These efforts seem to be paying off. There has been a modest increase in Canadians' knowledge of their military history over the 10 or 12 years of the institute's existence.
On Remembrance Day, November 2008, we measured Canadians' attitudes toward commemoration. Last year, as you know, was the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. We asked for Canadians' agreement or disagreement to a couple of statements. One was whether it's important to commemorate Canada's military history. We found 92% agreement with that, including 59% who said they strongly agreed with that type of statement. Then we asked whether we should be doing more to educate young people about our military history. Again, we found 90% agreement, including 53% who strongly agreed with that statement.
In the slide presentation I pulled aside the Quebec numbers, where we've seen the strongest variation. As I was doing interviews on our military history, journalists put it to me that Quebec marches to its own drummer sometimes on these things. I think the survey data will show that while levels of support for those statements were slightly lower, they were really only slightly lower.
The institute sees itself as a national organization that has a footprint in both anglophone and francophone Canada. I think the ground is fertile for the type of work and remembrance activities we do and that the committee looks into.
Last year we did a survey of our Memory Project veterans, and there are a few highlights. Those are things to bear in mind when looking at activities with regard to remembrance. There were 80% of veterans who said they were concerned about how Canadians will remember the Second World War when all the veterans have passed away; 78% said they felt that Canadians were fast forgetting the history of the Second World War; and 53% told us that people, more today than at any time in the past, ask them about their military experience.
With regard to the Memory Project, two-thirds, 63%, felt that in-school programs, like the Memory Project, were probably the most effective way to educate young Canadians about our military history. This is something we have found. We do the Memory Project for students and for teachers, but nine out of ten of our veteran volunteers have told us that speaking in schools as part of the Memory Project is their most rewarding and significant volunteer activity.
Jeremy, perhaps you could say a few words about the future of the Memory Project.