OTTAWA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Canada's Conservative
government was losing support from most Canadians on two major issues, with more
than half of the population opposing its decision to extend the country's
military missions in Afghanistan and its hostile stand toward the Kyoto treaty,
a survey said on Sunday.
Ottawa's decision to extend military deployment in
Afghanistan by two years had the support of just four out of 10 Canadians,
according to the survey by Decima Research.
Fifty-four percent opposed the move, including 24
percent who were "strongly" opposed.
Fewer than a third of respondents were siding with
the Tory government's strategy of playing down the Kyoto accord in favor of a
"made-in-Canada" approach to climate change, and 59 percent said the accord was
important for Canada and the country should not withdraw from it.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper narrowly won
parliamentary approval last month to extend the Afghan mission beyond its
original expiry date next February.
On Kyoto, although the government had not said it
wanted to pull out of the treaty, it said repeatedly that it was impossible to
meet the emission reduction targets and emphasized that it wanted to draw up a
new plan.
The telephone poll of 1,020 respondents was conducted
on May 25-28.
Bruce Anderson, the CEO of Decima, pointed out it did
not appear that dissatisfaction over the Afghan and Kyoto policies was strong
enough to undermine the government's overall popularity.
Other figures from the same survey period, which were
released previously, indicated the Conservatives were the party of choice for 38
percent of respondents, compared with 29 percent for the Liberals, 21 for the
New Democratic Party and eight for the separatist Bloc Quebecois.
The Tories resumed power earlier this year after
defeating the Liberals in the January federal election, the first time in 13
years. Enditem