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Joe Oliver, the finance minister, has said a Conservative government would cut more taxes if re-elected. Speaking in Toronto last week, he was asked if federal taxes were now as low as they can go.

“I think we could do more,” he said, pointing out that debt servicing costs will decline as a percentage of expenditures in the coming years.

He also said that the fall in the price of oil had stripped “six or seven billion dollars” from government revenues, forcing the Conservatives to “delay” other measures.

Coincidentally, or perhaps not, a single point cut in the goods and services tax would cost $7-billion.

The Conservatives have already cut the GST by two percentage points from seven to six to five ­ at a cost of $14-billion every year in forgone tax revenue. The move was widely hailed as being terrible economically but genius politically, firmly establishing the Tories as the party of tax cuts.

Sources suggest this lesson has not be forgotten and there will be “surprises” in the forthcoming Conservative platform.

It would be a nuclear option for the Conservatives ­ a move that the Liberals and New Democrats likely couldn’t afford to match.

The fiscal reality is that the Conservatives can’t really afford to lose another $7-billion in tax revenue either. The recent budget forecast cumulative surpluses of just $13-billion over the next five years, plus a further $7-billion in “rainy day” contingency funds.

But the lure of trimming the GST ­ the least complicated, most easily communicated tax cut ­ is like a siren song. Advocates say the money would be found elsewhere if necessary ­ by squeezing the public service further, tapping the $5-billion in annual “lapsed” spending or, perhaps, by repealing some of the tax credits that are already in place.