Spending cuts work just fine.  There is a lot of redundancy and excess spending that can be eliminated in government.  Especially with the Feds duplicating services provided by the provinces already.  Spending cuts are not created equal. No government gets it right 100% of the time.  Harper had some good cuts (redundant waterway protection) and some bad ones (experimental lakes, long form census).

I notice that you didn't include the king of spending cuts Paul Martin in your little partisan list.  Martin's slashing of healthcare and provincial transfers when the feds were taking in Huge amounts of revenue from the Internet and Telecom boom were largely unnecessary and caused problems that the provinces are still dealing with today.

Cuts can work.  But when you make cuts is just as important as what you cut.