It's not easy being conservative in this country, as Canadians seem to like their big government. Massive spending initiatives can get you elected and, as we saw in the last election, cutting something like arts funding can prevent you from getting a majority. It's even harder to be fiscally conservative in this country if you're the Conservative Party. It says something that it was the Liberals that balanced the budget after the Mulroney government left them with a massive debt. Despite a willingness within the Conservative Party to decrease spending and reduce the size of government, any move toward this goal plays into the "hidden agenda" fears that have been propagated by the left.

With the current state of the world economy, the Conservatives actually have a chance to be conservative.  Canadians are smart enough to understand that the sinking economy is the fault of global economic forces and not of their government as the opposition would like them to believe. I also think people understand that if they don't want to see massive deficits, then governments need to cut back on spending. Granted, most economists will tell you that there's nothing wrong with deficits or debt, but the Canadian right has worked too hard to make 'deficit' a bad word. Even the NDP promised not to go into a deficit situation in the last election campaign. I'd hate to see Conservative Party, of all parties, throw this away.

Now is the time to be fiscally conservative, because it's virtually impossible to do when times are good. This is why we've seen the Alberta Conservatives turn from a truly fiscally conservative government in the '90's to de-facto liberals as soon as the debt was paid and oil revenues started rolling in. Klein did a great job of cutting back government programs and reducing spending when the province was faced with a huge debt. However, as soon as the province was posting massive surpluses, Klein started handing out money like it was growing on trees.

The federal Tories have a choice to make. They can do as the Republicans have done in the U.S. and lower taxes while vastly increasing spending, causing the national debt to balloon. Or they can make government leaner and reduce the size of any future deficits by cutting spending. The Conservatives have been sending mixed signals lately. Will our government stand up and commit to a fiscally conservative agenda so that we are not left with a broken ship once this economic storm passes?

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