Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier is releasing his “Responsible Plan for Income Tax Cuts” today on Parliament Hill — a plan that, at the risk of spoiling the surprise, could look something like the one he proposed in his 72-page 2003 French tract: “Pour un taux unique d’imposition: Pour en finir avec le mythe des taux progressifs”.

Roughly translated, that’s: “For A Flat Tax: Doing Away With The Myth of Progressive Rates”.

Even if the essence of Bernier’s proposed plan may not have changed in 13 years — back then he called for a flat tax of 20 per cent with the first $15,000 of income exempt — he may choose to be a little more careful about how he describes it now.

For a Flat Tax makes an eyebrow-raising analogy that would provoke a good discussion in a University of Calgary graduate school class (he cites Hayek, Friedman, Locke and de Tocqueville) but probably wouldn’t result in the kind of headlines a leadership candidate likes to see.

At one point in the book, Bernier argues that “discrimination based on income is no more defensible than discrimination based on religion” — a point he expands on with the hypothetical scenario of a majority of Quebecers deciding to “confiscate the wealth of their fellow Jewish citizens and transfer it to their fellow Catholic citizens”.

“Should we submit to the majority’s decision in that case?” he asks rhetorically. If not (he continues), is it fair to force the rich to transfer the majority of their income to those who don’t make enough to pay taxes? In 2003, he notes, that was 40 per cent of Quebecers.

“Now let’s suppose a majority of citizens vote to confiscate 60 per cent of the income of all the citizens who make an annual income of $100,000 and decide to transfer that portion to individuals with an annual salary of less than $20,000. In that case, should we submit ourselves to the majority?” he asked.

“If your answer was yes, and supposing your answer to the first question was no (the question about transferring Jewish citizens’ money to Catholics), on what basis are you differentiating the two cases?”

Victims of antisemitism might have few ideas.

But leaving old ham-handed analogies aside, Bernier’s pure libertarianism and workhorse approach to the campaign — making industry-deregulating policy announcements every few weeks — clearly has been resonating with some.

Last week, he claimed to have raised more than $350,000 from over 1,400 donors since launching his campaign in May. And more might start flowing in from the less progressive-minded wealthy Canadians hit by the Liberals’ new 33 per cent tax rate on income over $200,000.

As Bernier wrote in For a Flat Tax, “It’s obvious that the progressivity of taxes is established in an arbitrary way and not according to some measure of the ‘equality of sacrifice’. The only criterion on which governments base a progressive tax system is budgetary. They’re going to look for the money where it’s found — the rich — ignoring natural justice and fairness.”