Toronto, Ontario:  Support for same-sex marriage in Canada's most populous province has reached 60 percent a new polls shows.  The Leger Poll taken for Toronto Life Magazine also shows that 51 percent of those surveyed are proud of Canada for making it legal for same-sex couples to get married.

The survey was released in conjunction with Gay Pride Month and just after the first anniversary of the legalization of same-sex marriage across Canada.

Ontario became the first Canadian province to legalize same-sex marriage in 2003.  Since then support for gay and lesbian couples has steadily grown.  The poll also showed that most Ontario residents are opposed to a plan by the federal government to attempt to reopen the marriage issue.  Only 21 percent of those surveyed approved of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's move to end same-sex marriage.

Harper announced earlier this month that he will introduce a motion in the fall asking MPs to take up the marriage issue.  That fulfills a campaign promise and plays well with his Conservative Party's base in the West but could hurt him in both Ontario and Quebec - two provinces he needs to win if he is to form a majority government.

In the city of Toronto, which has Canada's largest gay community, estimated to be in excess of 250,000 people, 55 percent of those polled said they feel that their city "is a better city because of its gay community".

Seven-in-ten people across the province said they know someone who is gay or bisexual, but only 4% say they have had "sexual relations of some kind with a person of the same sex".