Win an election on a spending cut platform?

Here in British Columbia we have yet to hear from a political party with a small government platform. Maybe that's because politicians worry they wouldn't get elected if they openly and honestly said what they were going to do. But experience right her in Canada shows it is possible to promise to cut government spend and get elected, and get re-elected.

During the 1992 Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership race, Ralph Klein promised to balance the budget in four years, reduce the size of cabinet and implement a balanced budget law. He went on to win the 1993 election with 44.5 per cent of the vote and immediately reduced the government cabinet from 26 to 17. He then eliminated the gold-plated pension plan and introduced the Deficit Elimination Act.

Klein didn't stop there. He then:

• Reduced government spending by 20% over four years
• Reduced MLA salaries by 5%
• Achieved a 5% rollback on bureaucrat salaries, including unionized bureaucrats.
• Cut health care spending by 6.3%
• Cut kindergarten funding in half
• Reduced municipal grants by 47%
• Removed university tuition caps
• AND Cut 30,000 from the welfare rolls.

By 1995, Alberta had its first balanced budget in a decade.

So, was Klein universally despised and decried throughout the province? Was he tarred and feathered? Was he run out on a rail? 

No, he had a 73% approval rating and was re-elected in 1997, 2001 and 2004.

With proper planning and follow through, a clear honest defense of limited government can, and will, be rewarded by voters.