OTTAWA — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has the backing of Canadians to slash federal jobs, according to a new poll that suggests reducing the deficit should be the cornerstone of the government’s upcoming budget.

Flaherty is expected to announce tough measures to find annual savings of at least $4 billion a year — a move public sector unions fear will lead to stacks of pink slips after years of bloat under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

An Abacus Data poll suggests 61% of 1,209 online respondents support job cuts to balance the books and erase the $32-billion deficit.

The poll found 65% believe balancing the budget and reducing the federal deficit should be a very high or high priority. Eighteen percent said they oppose taking an axe to federal workers, while 21% neither support nor oppose job cuts.

Tories (73%) are most in favour of chopping while Liberals are least supportive at 53% followed by New Democrats at 55%.

Many Canadians ( 41%) expressed concern about the impact of job cuts on government services while 30% pointed to their potential impact on the economy. Twenty- two percent said they aren’t at all concerned about the impact of cuts and 5% indicated concern for bureaucrats losing their jobs.

Most survey respondents said they prefer spending cuts to higher taxes as a method to cut the deficit.

The margin of error for a random survey of this size is 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The poll was conducted between Jan. 31 and Feb. 2.