Prime Minister Stephen Harper urged Canadians on Monday not only to remember the veterans who fought for their freedom but to follow their courageous example.

"They stood up for Canada. So how do we honour them? We remember them. But we must do more -- we must follow their example," Harper said, before quoting lines from the famous First World War poem 'In Flanders Fields,' by John McRae.

"As the poem begs of us 'Take up our quarrel with the foe. To you from failing hands we throw the torch,'" he said in an address to youth and veterans at Ottawa's National War Museum that kicked off Veterans Week.

Harper noted that generations of young men and women have risked their lives to fight for a just cause.

"So it is today in Afghanistan. More than two-score of our troops have fallen since we joined the United Nations campaign to rescue that country from tyranny, terrorism, and the Taliban following 9/11. This week, we remember them too." he said Monday.

"Our grief is new, so it is acute. Short days ago, as (Lt.-Col. John) McCrae wrote in 1915 of his comrades, these brave young men and women lived felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and were loved. Each casualty hurts. It hurts us deeply."

But along with the pain, he said, comes an immense pride in today's generation of soldiers.

The prime minister thanked, on behalf of the government, four Canadian soldiers who will be the first to receive new medals for their time in Afghanistan.

Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean last month announced the national honours awarded to recognize acts of valour, self-sacrifice or devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy.

The Star of Military Valour is going to Sgt. Patrick Tower, who is based in Edmonton and is originally from Victoria, B.C.

Sgt. Michael Thomas Denine of Edmonton; Master Cpl. Collin Ryan Fitzgerald from Morrisburg, Ont.; Pte. Jason Lamont of Greenwood, N.S., will each receive the Medal of Military Valour.

Following Harper's remarks, he unveiled a new 90-second video which will be aired on television, on the Web and in public spaces across Canada during Veterans Week.

The video, which is assembled from archival and contemporary sources, honours the contribution of Canada's servicemen and servicewomen.

Meanwhile in the red chamber on Monday morning, members of the Senate held a ceremony in honour of Canada's war dead.

With several veterans looking on, Speaker Noel Kinsella told the gathering that the Senate is a fitting place for such a memorial.

He referred to the Senate's architecture, along with early war paintings and other symbols that adorn the chamber as reminders of Canada's "coming of age" as a nation.