Two Bloc members, Maxime Bellerose and Benoît Demuy, endorse the NDP in an open letter

It seems that an orange tinge is taking over all Canadian politics lately: after this past weekend saw a surge of support for Jack Layton’s party, today Maxime Bellerose and Benoît Demuy of the Bloc Québécois are openly calling for sovereigntists to vote NDP on May 2. Bellerose and Demuy have written an open letter that states the Bloc has reached its limits in Ottawa, and it’s time to move onto another option. Both Bloc members still feel that sovereignty is the best road for Quebec, but seem to be resorting to an anyone-but-Harper strategy.

According to the latest numbers from Nanos (as reported in the Globe and Mail), the NDP is dominating Quebec with 41.4 per cent support, compared to 23.6 per cent for the Bloc, 16. 1 per cent for the Liberals and 15. 8 per cent for the Tories. Demuy told CBC News that he feels his orange endorsement is merely indicative of the way many other bloquistes are feeling as Election Day approaches. “I’m not a black sheep; I’m an anecdote,” Demuy said.

Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe was quick to reply to Bellerose and Demuy, brushing off any NDP endorsement as misplaced political energy in these critical days before the vote. “If you ask me if I think they are right, I’ll tell you they are wrong,” Duceppe told the Globe and Mail. “I think they’re making an error, just like [former Bloc supporters] who ran for the Tories in the past.” Of course, we’ll only know how orange Quebec will actually look when the polls close on Monday.

• 2 Bloc members support NDP [CBC News]
• Bloc defectors ‘wrong’ to support NDP, Duceppe says [Globe and Mail]