The Royal Canadian Legion is hoping that introducing the poppy to social media will help spread awareness about its meaning. 

President of the Manitoba and Northwest Ontario Command Ronn Anderson says the online poppy is a new and unique way people can honour and remember those who fought for Canada's freedom and is a nice addition to the traditional poppy. 

"All of the people who use social media can show their support of our veterans on their profiles," Anderson said. "People have to understand what they went through in order to maintain the prosperity we have in Canada and to remember the things they did to maintain our peace. It's for the ones that never came back, those that come back and suffer greatly for many years after, and those who still go and serve our country." 

Anderson says you can also go out and get a poppy for your jacket at any legion branch or at a lot of local businesses by making a donation to a poppy box. He says all the proceeds from the poppy campaign go towards helping veterans and their families. 

"That can mean emergency assistance, long-term assistance in veteran's housing, services provided to veterans through care homes and hospitals, or services that are provided door-to-door like Meals on Wheels, which deliver meals to veterans in their homes," Anderson said. "It helps to build low-cost housing for veterans, and to train medical staff and build medical equipment for hospitals that help veterans and their families." 

Anderson says there is a common misconception in some circles that the money from the campaign goes to help specific legions maintain their buildings, but he says that's not true. 

"The money goes into the poppy trust fund and is to be used only in the support of veterans and the service provided for them," he said. "The branch itself cannot use any of these funds for anything other than support of the veterans." 

Remembrance Day 2018 will mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. 

You can create an online poppy by visiting mypoppy.ca.