Poll: Canadians want federal spending cuts

OTTAWA, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- In the face of international financial chaos, 82 percent of Canadians polled favored responding with federal spending cuts, the Canwest News Service reported.

The online poll of 1,012 adults last week by the Ipsos Reid agency asked about preference for the government to deal with the financial turmoil. Asked about raising taxes, 83 percent were opposed, the survey found.

Amid warnings from national and provincial leaders the downturn could result in running deficits, just 42 percent said they would tolerate a deficit to see the country through the turmoil, the report said.

Recently, TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond wrote if the minority Conservative government proceeds next year with the combination of tax cuts and spending increases announced in the 2008 Budget, it would run a deficit next year of at least $10 billion and increasingly smaller ones for the next four years, Canwest said.

Ipsos Reid said statistical margins of error are not applicable to online opt-in polls.