As far as I'm concerned, I think the welfare state is an important concept that has been established in many countries over the past 75 years. It's not a state that sees itself as a father or mother; it's a welfare state, in my view. So, I would tend to describe it that way.
As for public services, remember the mid‑1990s, when the Canadian federal government decided it needed to balance the budget. How did it do that? It balanced the budget by cutting transfers to the provinces. What was the result? It led to problems in education and health care, among other areas. Of course, it is not the federal government itself that manages health care and education. You say we all agree. Perhaps everyone would have said the same thing in the 1990s, that education is important. However, the decisions that were made resulted in cuts to education.
It's not rocket science. You can't make significant cuts without there being consequences.