OTTAWA -- Even if Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives manage to hold on to power through to the end of this month and beyond, truckers shouldn't hold their breath waiting for the Tories' promised (and much-hyped) diesel excise tax cut.

Invited to give the keynote speech at the first luncheon at the Ontario Trucking Association's annual convention, veteran CTV journalist Mike Duffy revealed that his sources in Ottawa don't think slashing the tax is a priority for the minority government -- and he said all this before the ill-advised coup attempt by the NDP-Liberal-Bloc coalition and the Parliamentary turmoil that followed.

"It's not off the table yet, but it's definitely on the backburner," said Duffy, pointing out that the issue wasn't at all mentioned in Harper's throne speech last November.

Duffy also hinted that if the price of oil continues to drop, "there might not be the pressure to follow through (at all)."

The Tories' proposal to cut the four-cent-per-liter tax in half was an attempt to counter the Liberals' Green Shift plan. The government said at the time that reducing the tax would boost the economy by lowering transportation costs for shippers, trucking companies and railways.

Incidentally, Duffy has since been appointed by PM Harper to the Canadian Senate. So, if OTA delegates made any impression on him at all, perhaps truckers will have a new ally in the upper chamber of Parliament.