"...The identification of limited government with small government was the position of the Anti-Federalists who opposed the ratification of the Constitution. Limited government, for the Anti-Federalists, meant government that was too weak to threaten the rights and liberties of the people. Small government was, therefore, both the necessary and sufficient condition of political freedom. Consequently, the Anti-Federalists preferred a purely confederal form of government in which the states assumed priority....
...The task today is to confine the federal government to its delegated powers. The minions of the administrative state seek to destroy constitutional boundaries in their desire to replace politics with administration. This is tantamount to denying that legitimate government derives from the consent of the governed, or that limited government rests on the sovereignty of the people." Professor Edward J. Erler
I prefer limited and small, effective government. Limited regarding certain powers, better left for the people and the States (provinces in Canada). But not the courts regarding the constitution.
A few years back, on American talk radio programs, I heard about conservative Hillsdale College and the free publication Imprimis,which means "in the first place" in Latin. Thus, I subscribed to the essays and adapted speeches.
The linked issue clarifies small and limited government.
The Constitution and Limited Government by Professor Edward J. Erler
http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp
Edward J. Erler is professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute. He earned his B.A. from San Jose State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from Claremont Graduate School. He has published numerous articles on constitutional topics in journals such as Interpretation, the Notre Dame Journal of Law, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. He was a member of the California Advisory Commission on Civil Rights from 1988-2006 and served on the California Constitutional Revision Commission in 1996. He has testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the issue of birthright citizenship and is the co-author of The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration.