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Seven of the 10 BlocQuébécois MPs quit Wednesday because of Martine Ouellet’s leadership style, leaving the once-powerful party in complete disarray and with the embattled leader refusing to step down.

“I am staying on as leader,” Ouellet defiantly told reporters after news broke she was losing 70 per cent of her caucus.

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The seven, who will sit as independents, made the announcement after a Bloc caucus meeting in Ottawa.

One of them is Louis Plamondon, who has been in the Commons since 1984, including the last 25 years as a Bloc MP.

He said he is “leaving the leader” but “is not leaving the BlocQuebecois.”

The exodus is a crushing blow to a party that formed the official Opposition under Lucien Bouchard in 1993.

Gilles Duceppe then took over the reins of the Bloc and led it in five consecutive elections in which it won at least half of the seats in Quebec.

Duceppe, in an interview with The Canadian Press, said Ouellet has to go.