Most Canadians believe their government is giving enough aid to victims of the south Asian tsunami, but opinion is divided on whether they should be welcomed as immigrants.

According to the results of a new Ipsos-Reid poll conducted for CTV and The Globe and Mail, Canadians are largely unconvinced by opposition criticism of the pace with which Ottawa responded to the disaster.

When asked whether the government's response was enough, 71 per cent of respondents said Ottawa was "doing just the right amount."

In contrast, only 21 per cent said the government should be doing more while four per cent said more than enough was being done already.

But when questions shifted to opening Canada to a wave of new immigrants from the tsunami-stricken region, the consensus was less clear.

When asked whether the federal proposal to fast-track immigrants was a good one, 52 per cent of respondents said, "the government should allow only those with family sponsors a fast-tracked opportunity to come to Canada."

Just ten per cent fewer, or 48 per cent, said "a much larger group of people from the region should be allowed to immigrate to Canada on humanitarian grounds regardless of whether or not they have family sponsorship."

Touring the hard-hit areas around Phuket, Thailand on Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew echoed the survey response when he said the government got the timing and scale of its response "just right."

On the time it took to deploy Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, Pettigrew said the government has been criticized for being both too fast and too slow.

"I suppose the government got it just right," Pettigrew told reporters by telephone. "It took a couple of days more, but I think we have come to a better conclusion."

Other highlights from the Ipsos-Reid poll include:

• Approximately one-in-five Canadians said they feel overwhelmed by the tsunami disaster. More than 70 per cent of respondents said they are "deeply concerned" while three per cent say they "don't really care".
• More than 80 per cent of respondents said they are following developments in the disaster closely, compared to 18 per cent who said they are tracking developments "not very closely" or "not at all."
• Two-thirds of Canadians said they have either already made, or are planning to make, a cash donation to one of the registered charities organizing the disaster relief. Twenty-eight per cent said they have not and do not plan to donate.

The poll results are based on a random telephone survey of 1,000 adult Canadians conducted between Jan. 4 and Jan. 6. The results are considered accurate to within ± 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.