The Conservative minority government's first budget has one overriding political goal: To help it form a majority government in the next election, whenever that happens.

The Tories hope the 2006-07 budget will build their credibility and popularity by delivering on their famous five priorities.

Of those priorities, a major one is tax reduction.

A clear blueprint of the central role tax cuts will play in the economic policy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is contained in an April 12 speech he delivered to the St. John's Board of Trade in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"We're going to provide real tax relief for all Canadians, and this is the topic I wish to talk to you about today," Harper said.

"Under the previous Government, billions upon billions of dollars were taken from Canadians through over-taxation -- nothing more, nothing less -- to fund large and often hidden federal surpluses.

"In the last decade, roughly $100 billion in 'unexpected' surpluses poured into Ottawa."

Harper then made it known he thought the phrase fiscal imbalance had a wider meaning than just the revenue gap between the federal and provincial governments.

"We also want to resolve the current fiscal imbalance between the federal Government and individual Canadians - all Canadians."

The government's GST reduction would put $400 to $500 per year back in the pockets of Canadian families, he said. "That money would be enough to pay for an infant car seat, a new set of snow tires, or some other family necessity."

He promised, however, that tax relief wouldn't stop there.

"Over the course of our mandate, we will continue to cut taxes for all Canadians," he said.

"We are going to reduce the cost of doing business, not just by implementing the on-again-off-again corporate tax reductions, but by reducing the tax burden currently being shouldered by small businesses in this country."

Harper soon swung back to pocket-book tax cuts promised during the election: For tradesmen buying tools, for urban commuters buying transit passes, for students buying textbooks or taking on bursaries, even tax cuts for kids' sports registration fees.

He also promised tax help for seniors, for those selling fishing businesses to family members, and to ease the donation of stocks to charities.

"My friends, tax relief cannot only benefit a precious few. It must benefit all of us, so that all Canadians are given more opportunity to get ahead," Harper said.

"And that is why our Government will move forward with actions aimed at alleviating the tax burden of all Canadians - students, trades people, seniors, young families, small business people, transit users."

Lawrence Martin, a Globe and Mail columnist, told CTV.ca those targeted cuts were an important part of the Conservatives' election strategy.

He said Patrick Muttart -- who worked for federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in the 2003 Ontario provincial election and is now a key adviser for the federal Conservatives -- studied Conservative election victories in several countries and found that money-in-the-pocket promises captured votes from working-class people who didn't normally make it out to the polls.

One tax working people have always hated is the GST, brought in by a Progressive Conservative government in 1991, Martin noted.

"I don't think (former prime minister Brian) Mulroney envisaged that a future Conservative government would be cutting his GST."

However, "it's a tax-cut measure Canadians can readily identify with, and from that point of view, (a reduction is) very popular, because Canadians can realize it practically every day of the week when they buy something," he said.

Many economic commentators have said cutting the GST instead of income taxes is bad for the economy because it encourages spending rather than savings and investment.

Martin said because the GST is such a strong cash generator, cutting it (removing one point) will reduce government tax revenues by $5 billion annually. The Tories have promised to shave off a second point within five years. If they deliver this promise, they may find themselves handicapped when it comes to cutting income taxes at some future date.

In any event, Canadians shouldn't bank on the Tories coming through on every tax-cutting promise, he said.

"Just last week, Mr. Harper, on the gasoline tax, promised reductions on that if gas taxes got over a certain level, and he had been trouncing the Liberals for their policies on that. Well, it turns out that Harper himself is not going to deliver on his earlier promise."

Harper said at the time that the gas promise was two elections ago, and that his one-point GST cut fulfilled it.

A key issue for John Williamson of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation, who generally likes the Conservatives' tax reduction agenda, will be how the Conservatives handle a previously-implemented Liberal tax cut.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on April 25 that "Canadians overall will pay less taxes after this budget than they paid under the previous government." He wouldn't say, however, if the Tories would rescind previously implemented Liberal income tax cuts, including a $500 increase in the basic personal exemption.

"Personally, I'd be very surprised if Jim Flaherty is going to stand up next week in the House of Commons and deliver a budget that will see taxes go up on Canadians," Williamson told CTV.ca.

"I say this tongue in cheek, if that were to happen, my kind words that I have to say about him would go out the window."