Last Updated Sun, 09 Apr 2006 18:43:54 EDT

CBC News

Canadians are nearly evenly divided on whether it was a good idea to send domestic troops to Afghanistan and how long they should stay there, a new survey suggests.

• INDEPTH: Afghanistan

Nearly half of Canadian want soldiers to come home.

The survey by Decima Research found 46 per cent of respondents considered the deployment a good idea, while 45 per cent said it was bad.

Forty-three per cent of those surveyed in the poll released Sunday said Canadian troops should be brought home within the next year. Another 25 per cent said the troops should stay as long as it takes to complete the mission, 15 per cent drew the line at five years and 10 per cent said they should stay another year or two.

• RELATED: Decima Research

The survey results were provided to the Canadian Press.

The online poll of 2,131 people was conducted between March 31 and April 4. A random sample of this size is considered accurate plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

• FROM MARCH 13, 2006: Canada committed to Afghan mission, Harper tells troops

The survey was released on Sunday, the day before Parliament was due to debate the Afghan mission.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already declared, on a recent visit to Afghanistan, that his Conservative government will never "cut and run" from the military mission that began under the previous Liberal administration.