Ottawa - The vast majority of Canadians approved of the Conservative government's Halloween mini-budget, with the income-tax cuts seen as a particular treat, a new poll suggests.

But it's not clear whether the thumbs up from taxpayers will translate into more votes for the Tories.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll - conducted in the three days after the economic update - found that 84 per cent of Canadians supported Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's plan to increase the basic exemption for personal income tax.

Another 83 per cent support the reduction in the personal income tax rate by half a percentage point.

Seventy-six per cent approved of reducing the GST by one percentage point.

The numbers suggested the tax breaks made a positive impact on Conservative fortunes, but not a massive one.

One in four Canadians said the tax cuts would make them more likely to vote Conservative, while 14 per cent said it would have the opposite effect.

"There's a significant number of people who say that they're planning on voting for the Liberal party, the NDP, the Greens and the BQ, who say that these initiatives make them more likely to vote Conservative...It hasn't pushed them completely to the point where they say 'I'm going to vote Conservative,"' said Harris/Decima president Bruce Anderson.

Anderson noted that his latest polling on voting intentions shows the Tories stuck at the same levels over the past couple of weeks - in the mid-30 per cent range. Still, he says there could be future rewards.

"If the question is, have they put some credit in the bank that could turn out to help them in the context of a federal election, I think there's no question they've done that," Anderson said.

The poll also suggests Liberal Leader Stephane Dion was reading the tea leaves correctly when he decided not to force an election over the mini-budget. Sixty-four per cent of Canadians didn't think the economic update was a reason to bring down the government - including 68 per cent of those identified as Liberal supporters.

The Liberals abstained from voting on the economic update, a move that ensured the measures would pass. The NDP and Bloc Quebecois had voted against the mini-budget, arguing the billions involved could have been better spent.

In perhaps another sign of how mercurial voters can be, 57 per cent of poll respondents said the $5.5 billion in lost GST revenues would have been better spent on a national child care program, with 55 per cent saying greenhouse-gas reductions would have been a wiser bet.

The poll of 1,000 Canadians was conducted between November 1-4. The margin of error is 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.