A Canadian soldier takes pictures from his damaged vehicle after a suicide attack in Kandahar province in February. There have been 87 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002. (Allauddin Khan/Associated Press)

An online poll done last week suggests that only 36 per cent of Canadians agree with the decision to extend Canada's military mission in Afghanistan through 2011, a Vancouver-based polling firm says.

That is down from 41 per cent in a similar poll done in May, Angus Reid Strategies said in a statement issued Monday.

Parliament approved a motion in March to extend the Afghanistan mission from 2009 to 2011 if NATO allies provide reinforcements and the government secures the use of transport helicopters and surveillance drones.

In the latest poll, 58 per cent disagreed with the decision, up from 54 per cent in May, the firm said. Both times, about six per cent were not sure.

Because of the margin of error, it was not clear whether the figures represented a significant shift in opinion.

The latest poll was conducted July 2 and 3 through an online questionnaire answered by 1,004 adult members of a panel recruited for market surveys and political polls. They are eligible for prizes or cash payments in some cases. It was not clear any were paid in connection with this poll.

The 1,004 were selected at random and their answers were statistically weighted to reflect education, age, gender and regional patterns of the Canadian population, the firm said. The results of such a poll should be accurate 19 times out of 20 within a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points in either direction, Angus Reid said.

A bare majority of men (51 per cent) tended to support keeping the troops in Afghanistan, while women (69 per cent) were against it, the firm said.

Eighty-seven Canadian soldiers have been killed in the Afghanistan mission since 2002.