Joe Ceci happily rhymes off the sectors.

“Manufacturing is up. Exports are up. Housebuilding is up. Oil rigs and drilling are up—double from last year,” says the Alberta Finance Minister in an exclusive interview late last week. “Those are all private sector jobs,” he adds. “Our economy is performing well, we’ve increased our estimates for growth and jobs.”

Ceci, MLA for Calgary-Fort, inherited a provincial treasury utterly unprepared for the energy down-turn. In late 2014 oil prices tumbled from over $140 per barrel to less than $50. Jobs melted away, the energy-reliant economy contracted and deficits grew.

Sworn-in as Finance Minister in spring 2015, Ceci faced a stark choice. He could cut deep to balance the books. But firing teachers and nurses would deepen the recession, costing more jobs. Or he could stimulate the economy with infrastructure investments and by protecting Alberta’s health care, education and social services. That would mean putting up with deficits for several years.

“I’ve lived through it—the big cuts of the early 90s,” Ceci says of the years under Premier Ralph Klein. “Now, we’re building hospitals, not blowing them up,” he says, alluding to Klein’s infamous demolition of the Calgary General Hospital.

Ceci’s choice is showing results. The Conference Board of Canada says Alberta will have Canada’s strongest growth this year. TD Bank economists say his province will lead growth for two years. Ceci is cautious, saying growth will start to be felt by Albertans this fall.

The mounting evidence that Ceci made the right choice doesn’t please everyone. Despite the economic recovery taking hold, opposition leaders Jason Kenney and Brian Jean — both currently vying for the leadership of a new conservative party — keep demanding deep cuts.

Earlier this year Jean suggested the annual budget should be cut by between $5 and $7 billion — 10 to 13% of the province’s $54 billion budget. Last week Kenney’s finance critic also called for billions in cuts.

Of course, in typical conservative fashion, neither Kenney or Jean will say what their axe will chop. Apparently their hocus-pocus economics magically balances the budget with no effect on jobs, the economy or people’s lives. But that’s not how the real economy works.

Do the simple math. Over 55% of the Alberta budget goes to health care and education. Kenney or Jean would take Alberta right back to the bad old days.

“We have a model of that right next door in Saskatchewan,” adds Ceci, pointing to the conservative government of Premier Brad Wall. Their approach “was raising taxes, shutting down necessary programs and services—which took money out of the economy.” Amid mounting blow-back and polls showing Wall’s party slipping behind the opposition NDP, Wall recently quit.

Ceci points to a TD Bank report contrasting Alberta’s “stimulative” approach with the “restrictive” plan in Saskatchewan. He credits Alberta’s strategy “to grow capital investment to get more people working” and says his child benefit and carbon levy rebate also stimulates growth, putting money “back into the pockets of low- and middle-income Albertans.”

Economically, Ceci now has a story to tell. Politically, as confidence returns to Alberta, Ceci can rightfully claim credit while badgering conservatives to come clean on which services they’d cut or how many nurses and teachers they’d fire.

Polls still say Ceci’s government is the underdog. But with two years to the next election, the Finance Minister can switch from defence to offence.

Tom Parkin is a former NDP staffer and social democrat media commentator