In an unprecedented move coming on the heels of the NDP’s meteoric rise in Quebec, two Bloc Quebecois members are urging their fellow sovereigntists to vote orange.

In an open letter to La Presse newspaper, Maxime Bellerose, a former president of the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve riding association, and Benoit Demuy, a former adviser to Bloc MP Real Menard, say they will vote for the NDP and ask their political stablemates to do the same.

The pair argue that the Bloc has done all it can for Quebec, saying another option is worth exploring. They say sovereignty should still be a goal for the province but Ottawa is the wrong place in which to fight.

“We are, and remain, profoundly convinced that sovereignty remains the best thing Quebec and its people can follow for their development, but like many say, Quebec’s sovereignty will be made in Quebec and not in Ottawa,” the pair writes.

Bellerose and Dumont, who call themselves “engaged citizens” and who both claim they remain Bloc members, say that Quebecers should take advantage of the social democracy now knocking on Parliament’s door in the form of the NDP.

“It would be a shame if Quebecers did not take advantage of this opportunity to send to Ottawa MPs who loudly and proudly share Quebec’s values of justice and cooperation,” they write.

The letter is a sign that cracks are starting to show in the Bloc Quebecois’ traditional positioning as the only party capable of truly representing Quebec in Ottawa.

On Friday, Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe lashed out at the two defectors during a press conference in Gatineau, saying the pair was “wrong” to support the NDP, just like former Bloc supporters who ran for the Conservatives in the past only to lose.

“I think the vast majority of sovereigntists are with us,” Duceppe told reporters.

Duceppe has stepped up criticism of the New Democrats in recent days, hammering NDP Leader Jack Layton for running weak candidates, including candidates who went on holiday during the campaign and at least one in a rural francophone riding who struggles with the French language.

Duceppe even went so far this week as to call in 80-year-old Jacques Parizeau, the former Quebec premier, to help shore up support among his party’s core separatists. It remains to be seen if the tactic will work.

In their letter, Bellerose and Demuy say the Harper government, even as a minority, succeeded in imposing since 2006 its “ideologically right” politics on the country.

They also estimate that the Bloc in the present campaign is incapable of carrying a message of hope and is muted in a “cold and calculating organization.”

“In the absence of a referendum victory, voting NDP is today the solution for escaping the cycle of minority Conservative governments,” they write.

Kathleen Monk, a spokeswoman for Layton, said the NDP is “excited” by the letter.

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“It’s indicative of all Quebecers who realize there’s a change that is coming,” said Monk. “Quebecers know that if they want their values represented, you need to vote for a leader like Jack Layton who will make those issues a priority in Ottawa.”

With files from Jennifer Wilson and Joanna Smith.

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