Same (though not American). I did the opposite. I started off conservative cause that's what my family and community was. Then found out that was hateful bullshit and am now extremely progressive. I'm happy to pay my taxes (and I pay waaaay more than average). I do sometimes wish they went to better things and weren't squandered as often (especially on MPs paying for $16 glasses of orange juice), but overall Canada does a decent job at using its taxes. It's impossible for taxes to go to 100% agreeable things, since there's no satisfying everyone. They're ultimately a net benefit.

I also don't have kids but am happy to see kids get the benefits of my taxes (and many other things taxes go to that don't directly benefit me). People who expect tax dollars to always benefit them are selfish and narrow-minded, which I think is the root reason some people don't like taxes.

Even if conservatives go back to being about "small government", I can't see myself voting Republican. I don't think I'm anything. I can see "small government" working. But I can also see the democrats vision of "government should do things" working too. I can see either technique working. The problem is, back when Republicans used to promote "small government", I noticed after a while, they never made government smaller. When I confronted some of them on that, they used to say at least its not as big as what the democrats want. What the fuck does that even mean? Democrats, on the other hand, actually try to do stuff.