Bloc Quebecois MP Andre Bellavance is quitting his party to sit as an independent, he announced at a press conference Monday morning.
Bellavance also said that he will not run in the next federal election but will continue working hard for his constituents until that time as an independent.
The 50-year-old has represented the Richmond-Arthabaska riding since 2004 and had the support of three fellow Bloc MPs in his recent leadership run. Nonetheless he narrowly lost the leadership race to Mario Beaulieu.
MP Jean-François Fortin quit the party to sit as an independent on 12 August 2014, leaving the Quebec separatist party with three MPs in Ottawa, well below the 54 it once held twice under longtime former leader Gilles Duceppe.
The Bloc now has two MPs.
“Mario Beaulieu didn’t have the support of the MPs when he came. When Jean-Francois (Fortin) quit it was a shock for me. He is new talent and was the only newly-elected Bloc MP. When he quit if affected me enormously," said Bellavance at a press conference.
"Mario Beaulieu says that he’s a uniter but I don’t see it."
The Bloc has been in complete disarray since Beaulieu's arrival over his approach to running the party. Beaulieu has pushed sovereignty as the main electoral theme even as polls suggest the appetite for it is waning.
Beaulieu has also been critical of past Bloc leaders, accusing them of having a defeatist attitude towards sovereignty.
Bellavance has represented Richmond-Arthabaska since 2004 but the 10-year veteran said that he no longer felt at home in the sovereigntist party under Beaulieu.
He said he simply could not work with Beaulieu going forward.
"I no longer felt comfortable with this team," Bellavance said. "I don't feel that we are going in the right direction."
Bellavance also denounced a "purity test for independence" that has taken place within the party over members' commitment to sovereignty, saying that it had made him feel like an outsider.
"It made me feel like an impostor and an intruder within the Bloc," Bellavance said.
He noted an "unhealthy atmosphere" within the party and described two very different political outfits: the Bloc Quebecois that existed "before June 14" and the one "after June 14" with Beaulieu at the helm.
With Bellavance gone, the ranks are thin for the embattled Bloc with just two sitting members in the House of Commons -- Claude Patry and Louis Plamondon.
Patry, who defected from the NDP, has already announced he won't run again in 2015.
Bellavance said the recent departure of Jean-Francois Fortin also got him thinking about his future.
Fortin quit the party, criticizing Beaulieu's leadership as one-dimensional and uncompromising.
For Beaulieu's part, he downplayed Fortin's harsh criticism and accused the MP of showing disloyalty to the party and the sovereigntist cause. He hasn't yet commented on Bellavance's departure.
-With a file from The Canadian Press
