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“One cannot legislate control of taxation except by a constitutional provision. The next government, including his own, can safely ignore the legislation, needn’t even bother to repeal it.”

The Constitution Act gives Parliament legislative authority over “raising of Money by any Mode or System of Taxation,” and that power cannot be altered without constitutional amendment.

In his announcement, Harper said the tax lock legislation would be in place for four years — the standard term of a majority government under the fixed election date law.

It is unclear why Harper felt the legislation is necessary as anything but a piece of campaign positioning. It would only be passed if the Conservatives formed a majority government, and if they don’t want to raise taxes, there would be nothing forcing them to do so.

And if the Tories were re-elected with a minority government, it is unlikely they would win the opposition support required to pass the tax lock law in the first place.

Some have speculated that a future government could enact new legislation to repeal a “tax lock” bill but in Walsh’s view, that wouldn’t be required.

Even if the Conservatives managed to get the proposal into law, it would carry no consequence for breaking it, much like the Conservative government’s fixed election date law, which Harper broke by going to the polls early, in 2008, by retroactively claiming the law wasn’t meant to apply to minority governments.

Rather, the proposal allows the Tories to highlight opposition positions on taxation — specifically, the Liberals plan to raise taxes on upper-income earners and the NDP’s promise to increase the corporate tax rate.

Opposition candidates denounced the tax lock plan as “silly” and a “meaningless” gimmick but it was welcomed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.