ADQ Leader Mario Dumont, right, speaks to his candidates Gérard Deltel, front, Sylvain Légaré and Renée-Claude Lizotte while campaigning in Quebec City Tuesday. Dumont said he won't apologize to TV host Guy A. Lepage for accusing his talk show of treating him unfairly. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)ADQ Leader Mario Dumont said he won't apologize to popular Quebec TV talk show host Guy A. Lepage after he lambasted him for being "unfair" during an interview last year.
Dumont railed against Radio-Canada's hit television talk show Tout le monde en parle for treating him unfairly during his appearance on the program in the 2007 Quebec election.
Dumont made the comments during an interview with a private radio station in Quebec City Tuesday morning.
He accused the talk show of treating him differently than other political leaders who have appeared on the Sunday night program, including Liberal Leader Jean Charest.
"When I watched other [guests], I was just a little bit more convinced" that he was held to different standards, the leader of the Action Démocratique du Québec party said.
Charest appeared on the program Sunday night in an interview Dumont said was carefully staged and padded to make the Liberal leader look good.
The accusation is insulting and smacks of desperation, , Lepage said Tuesday. The host said Charest's interview was not staged and demanded Dumont apologize to the team of people that produces the variety show.
Dumont is bitter because he didn't come off well during the interview, Lepage told CBC's French-language news service.
Tout le monde en parle boasts an average of more than 1.5 million viewers every Sunday, surpassing Hockey Night in Canada.
The show is hosts guests from the worlds of popular entertainment, politics, literature, sports and science who discuss contemporary topics and share a glass of wine on screen.
Past guests include Bianca Jagger, Raël, the leader of the UFO cult known as the Raëlian movement, and Justin Trudeau.
The ADQ leader said he'll never appear on the show again even if he is invited.
"You come to a point in your life, you know what you're going to do, and you know what you're not going to do," he told CBC.
Dumont was campaigning in Quebec City Tuesday, where he announced an ADQ government would hire independent experts to analyze public infrastructure projects worth more than $100 million in order to keep costs in check.
With files from the Canadian Press
