MONTREAL - Liberal leader Jean Charest is slamming a poll putting his party a point behind the CAQ in third place.

Charest criticized the methodology in the poll, which he said unfairly distributes the undecideds.

“If you redistribute the undecideds you have a totally different result,” he said. “Surveys are not reliable and never have been.”

He cited a recent poll from Alberta which turned out to be wildly off-base, predicting the demise of the Conservatives.

“How many times have we had elections which ended in pollsters admitting they were wrong?” he asked rhetorically.

Charest also attacked CAQ leader Francois Legault for promising to remain neutral in the event of a referendum.

The Liberal leader said that it demonstrates the fragility of the CAQ, which he described as “the party of disintegration.”

Charest campaigned in the Montreal area on Saturday in two districts on the South Shore, as well as Nelligan on the West Island.

In 2008 Liberal MNA Yolande James won the Nelligan seat with a comfortable lead of 14,595 votes.

Charest denied that he was in the area to shore up a threat to his anglo support base.

This is related to the vote of all communities, including anglophones communities,” he said.

Charest attacks Legault's labour policy

Charest also called CAQ François Legault leader a “peanut salesman,” Saturday.

Charest said that Legault’s plan to abolish 7,000 jobs would cost millions in buying the consent of the labour unions.

Legault had said that he’d offer compensation for the lost jobs, but that it would only cost “peanuts,” a comment that Charest seized upon Saturday.

“We are campaigning to win on September 4, because we believe firmly that voters won’t opt for a peanut salesman,” said Charest.

Legault, campaigning in Repentigny, said that Charest’s comments reeked of desperation.

“I’ve rarely had to comment on Charest’s ideas, today I have to comment on a desperate man and I have nothing to add,” said Legault.

-With a file from The Canadian Press