Well said

Jeffrey Simpson doesn't go quite so far as to answer the question of why right-wing governments tend to run up massive deficits in office after campaigning on their commitment to do nothing of the sort. (Hint: they're perfectly happy to burn as much money as they can for their own political benefit if it means that their successors in office have no room to maneuver.) But it's still well worth pointing out his acknowledgment of the chasm between brand and reality:

Canadian Conservatives and U.S. Republicans have spent at least three decades pledging three things: lower taxes, smaller government and a balanced budget. Their record has been so dismal, and the gap between promise and fulfilment so large, that citizens have to wonder what’s been going on. Conservatives, who are very good at attacking other ways of thinking, might reflect themselves on why their ideology has so frequently produced this performance gap.
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To this point, the Harperites have been much like conservatives everywhere. They’ve cut taxes but let spending rise in real terms and balanced the books only because of what they’d inherited. There’s every chance Mr. Harper won’t be in office the next time Ottawa shows a surplus.

Provincially, it’s been much the same story. In Ontario, the Harris-Eves Conservatives cut taxes and left a big deficit. In Saskatchewan, the Grant Devine Conservatives left a fiscal hole for the subsequent NDP government. In Alberta, the Conservatives cut taxes, but spending kept rising, so Alberta has one of the largest per capita governments in Canada. Only resource revenues let the government show surpluses. Once the recession came, the government dipped into the sustainability fund to help with shortfalls.
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The conservative record across the continent for the past 30 years has been rather clear. Despite all the rhetoric, conservatives tend to deliver lower taxes, bigger spending and large deficits. The gap between promise and delivery has been, and remains, huge.