More than 70% of Canadians don't support taking in more than 25,000 Syrian refugees, according to a new poll from the Angus Reid Institute. About two in five respondents (42%) think Canada should stop taking in Syrian refugees immediately.

As of Tuesday, more than 21,000 refugees had arrived in Canada, according to the government's website. The government is working to meet its target of 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February.

Immigration Minister John McCallum recently promised the Liberals would exceed their original commitment and accept between 35,000 and 50,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2016. The Angus Reid poll suggests this is at odds with what the majority of Canadians want.

Support for exceeding the 25,000 benchmark is lowest in the Prairies and Quebec, where less than a quarter of respondents were in favour, and tops out in B.C., where roughly two in five respondents were in favour.

B.C. was the province with the highest overall support for the refugee resettlement plan.

The poll results come just days after a Calgary school was vandalized with the message "Syrians Go Home and Die." That incident is one of several across the country that suggest brewing anti-refugee sentiments.

McCallum has acknowledged the potential for negative attitudes towards the arriving refugees.

"It's a delicate balance," he said at a January press conference in Ottawa. "We want to welcome all of these refugees with open hearts and with love the way Canadians have, but at the same time we are mindful that we don't want to offend Canadians who have themselves been waiting for a long time for social housing and things of that nature."

Despite the grim outlook on the Liberals' yearlong commitment, this is the first Angus Reid Institute poll that suggests a majority of Canadians support their ambitious refugee resettlement plan. In two previous polls by the institute opposition to the plan sat above 50%, while support hovered near 40%.

"A big driver of that opposition was concern and anxiety around the timelines," Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute said. The government originally committed to meet their target of 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of 2015, but later backtracked. "Extending the deadline to March 1 has taken the temperature down," Kurl said.

The Angus Reid Institute poll garnered responses from 1,507 Canadians who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.