The latest Canadian soldier to be killed in Afghanistan is on his way home after friends and comrades bid farewell during a ceremony on the tarmac at Kandahar Airfield on Monday.

Trooper Marc Diab, 22, was killed in a roadside bomb attack in the southern portion of Shah Wali Kot district on Sunday, just five days after another roadside bomb killed three other soldiers in nearby Arghandab.

Diab, who was based out of CFB Petawawa, was remembered by fellow soldiers for his big heart and the joy and laughter he brought to the lives of those around him.

Diab's family says he was planning to propose to his longtime girlfriend Mary Barakat when he returned home.

"He was planning to buy an apartment and to invest in this and that and to build a family," said his mother, Jihan Diab.

She said her son was proud to be in the military and was fulfilling a dream.

"Marc called himself a soldier since he was probably eight, or before that," Diab said from her home in Mississauga, Ont.

"What a hero he is. He was never scared, he wanted peace for every single part of the world."

Diab, whose family emigrated to Canada from war-torn Lebanon in 2000, wanted to continue his military career after his current five-year stint was up in 2011.

"He had plans to study and do something else within the military, I don't know what it was," his mother said. "He told me, 'mom it's good, I won't be in danger so much."'

Diab loved children and was the leader of a yearly church camp for kids, his mother added.

"He wanted more kids to attend this year ... he was preparing for it even from there (Afghanistan)."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Diab "paid the ultimate price" for his country, and his life and death serves as an example of the bravery of Canadian soldiers on this mission.

Canada's former top soldier also paid his respects to the soldier's family in an interview with CTV Ottawa on Monday.

"My heart quivered this morning also when I heard about the death of our young trooper from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, that young Canadian. And anybody who has followed his story of life is inspired by him," retired general Rick Hillier told CTV Ottawa.

Hillier said he wants Diab's family to know that Canadians are thinking of them as they deal with their loss.

"I know that Canadians from coast to coast to coast have that family and that great young Canadian in their thoughts and in their prayers today," said Hillier.

The four other soldiers wounded in Sunday's attack are reported in stable condition and three of them were to be evacuated to a U.S. Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany for further care.

The bombing took place in the same general vicinity as a major Canadian forward operating base, an outpost which guards the Dahla dam, one of Ottawa's signature reconstruction projects.

Diab is the 112th Canadian soldier to die since Canada started its mission in Afghanistan in 2002.

With files from The Canadian Press