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I did my own non-scientific experiment Monday as I boarded the Toronto subway for the morning rush. Let’s see how many people are wearing poppies, I told myself.

When I boarded the train on Remembrance Day I walked from one end of the subway car to another. There was at least 60 people and only one of them had a poppy, an older lady sitting off in a corner.

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One person out of 60.

No poppies on any of the three young women in hijabs. None on the half dozen white males in suits. None on the college and university students heading downtown. It was quite something.

There didn’t seem to be any single common denominator. The offenders were, well, everyone.

And I was one of them. I’d left the house in a rush and, because it was the first serious snowfall of the season, decided last minute to put on a different coat, one I hadn’t worn all season. The poppy I’d bought the other week was on a different coat.

I should have followed the wisdom of Kim Wright, a political strategist I spoke with on radio later that morning, who buys multiple poppies at one time — one for each coat.