CALGARY - Calgary's mayor says thousands of people are expected to attend the funeral of Cpl. Mike Starker, a city paramedic and reservist who was killed in an ambush in Afghanistan May 6.

Mayor Dave Bronconnier says it will be a very tough day for Starker's family, but he says it will also be tough for the emergency medical services personnel who worked with him.

Tom Sampson, the chief of Calgary's emergency medical services, says members of the public who can't make it to the funeral at the city's Round-Up Centre should line the streets to pay tribute to Starker as the procession leaves the downtown facility.

Starker, 36, was a medic with Edmonton's 15th Field Ambulance and is the 83rd Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002.

Sampson says he was touched that people came out to pay tribute to Starker on the Highway of Heroes in Ontario when his body was returned to Canada, so hoped Calgarians could do the same.

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