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Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says he doesn't believe a botched English-language interview he gave to a Halifax CTV affiliate will cost him Tuesday's election.

Stephen Harper and his campaign team have seized on the interview, claiming it proves the Liberal Leader isn't up to coping with the country's economic problems.

But Mr. Dion told CBC Newsworld that restarts happen all the time during pre-taped interviews. Mr. Harper's reaction simply shows the prime minister has no class and is trying to hide the fact that he has no plan to help the economy, he added. "I cannot believe it," Mr. Dion said Friday about the potential for the interview to damage his campaign. "In fact, it happens to everyone in (these) kind of interviews — we don't understand necessarily a question and we start again. "And sometimes it's the journalist who chooses to ask the question differently."

Mr. Dion says he simply didn't understand the question he was being asked by a CTV interviewer in Halifax Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Leader was critical of CTV for running the exchange: "I don't know why CTV decided to show that a few days a historic vote. There is something strange there. They are breaking their agreement because when I have said, 'Can we start again?", the journalist said 'sure, we will'," he said.

The controversy erupted over a pre-recorded television interview in which Mr. Dion interrupted local anchor Steve Murphy to say he didn't understand his opening question and asked if they could start over.

It took another two false starts before Thursday's interview finally proceeded.

On Friday, Mr. Dion said he simply couldn't understand the question, either because English is his second language, or because he has hearing difficulties.

In his reaction to the incident, Mr. Harper told reporters that a prime minister doesn't get a chance to have do-overs while running a country's economy.

That, the Liberals say, was a cheap shot by Mr. Harper at a man who has readily admitted his English isn't perfect — and that he has a hearing problem to boot.

"I think that most Canadians will see this as a matter of character that I want to help, I want to do the right thing," Mr. Dion said. "I know to act the first day, the Wednesday morning (after the election) what I will do."

With a report from The Canadian Press