Pauline Marois and the Scottish first minister were never seen together in public during the premier's excursion in Edinburgh.

They met behind closed doors, held no joint press conference, and media never had the chance to snap a photo of the two together. (An official photograph, however, was released.)

Pauline Marois is denying speculation that Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, is trying to keep his distance from Quebec's sovereigntist cause.

"We don't establish the rules of parliament. Reporters can not enter the parliament," says Marois, though it is not clear why the two could not have met publicly at some other time.

misstep

Francois Legault from the CAQ says the premier's trip is backfiring. "It's a total failure," he says. "Of course she wanted to have nice pictures."

Liberal MNA Lawrence Bergman doesn't buy Marois argument that parliamentary procedure kept the meeting out of the public eye.

"She's being rebuked by the people of Scotland and she's trying to find a nice way out of it," he says.

Both parties say Marois should have put more energy into the Quebec economy.