Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe has dismissed claims by five former party members that the Bloc has lost its relevance in Quebec by placing separation on the back burner.

The five ex-MPs were quoted in La Presse newspaper's Monday edition saying the party has become little more than a mouthpiece for unions.

They also criticized what they called the party's move to the left, echoing a remark made last week by a prominent separatist, who accused the party of becoming a "clone" of the New Democratic Party.

Jacques Brassard, a former Parti Québécois cabinet minister, said the Bloc was failing to effectively promote Quebec independence as its main platform issue.

Duceppe dismissed the attack as a matter of personal opinion, insisting the Bloc's policies are distinct from the NDP's.

'People say that during every campaign'

The Bloc leader also said he has heard it all before and suggested his critics are rabble-rousers and political has-beens who always complain at election time.

"People say that during every campaign, and every campaign Quebecers give us a majority," Duceppe said as he toured northwestern Quebec on the federal election campaign trail.

"And it will be the same this time as well."

The five former MPs quoted in the La Presse article included Odina Desrochers, Louise Thibault, Nic Leblanc, Ghislain Lebel and Richard Belisle, who all sat as Bloc MPs in the early days of the party, founded in 1990.

Also Monday, the newspaper Le Devoir published a letter signed by 11 former Bloc MPs supporting the party and leader.

Among them were Suzanne Tremblay, Daniel Turp and Maka Kotto, and they said the Bloc matters more now than ever, because it's the only party defending the interests of Quebec.

Tories look to gain ground

But Conservative candidate Michael Fortier suggested Duceppe's old caucus mates might be right to question the direction the Bloc has taken, saying the five were there when the party was formed and remember its reason for being.

Fortier was among several Quebecers, including Josee Verner and Jean-Pierre Blackburn, whom Harper appointed as cabinet ministers in his bid to shore up support in the seat-heavy province.

The 46-year-old lawyer and financier was appointed to the public works portfolio despite not being elected to office. He is now running in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges riding against Bloc incumbent Meili Faille.

Conservatives held 11 seats in Quebec going into the election, but the Tories are hoping to gain more ground in order to secure a much-coveted majority.

Most of the Conservative party's wins in the 2006 election were in and around the Quebec City area.

Stephen Harper has made several overtures to Quebec voters during his time as prime minister, including passing a motion in the Commons last year that declared the Quebecois a nation within Canada. Harper also gave Quebec an increased role in UNESCO as part of the Canadian delegation.

At Parliament's dissolution, the Bloc held 48 of the province's 75 ridings, while the Liberals held 11, two seats were independent and two others were vacant.

Shift in Quebec politics

Duceppe travelled first to Val d'Or, Que., Monday, where he was scheduled to meet with pulp-and-paper mill workers in the province's most northerly riding, Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou.

From there, he was to go to Rouyn-Noranda in the riding of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, where he planned to meet representatives of the area's cultural groups. The Bloc currently holds both ridings.

A Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll, done in partnership with CBC, suggested the Bloc have 34 per cent of popular support in Quebec, the Conservatives 27 per cent and the Liberals 21 per cent.

Daniel Salee, a political science professor at Concordia University, says Conservative support has increased partly because of a lack of support for the Liberals.

But Salee says the province is undergoing a more fundamental shift toward a centrist-right ideology.

"With the sovereignty question out of the way, it becomes a question of what kind of society we want," he said.

The shift in Quebec politics was highlighted by the Conservative breakthrough in 2006 and the right-leaning Action democratique's surge to become the official Opposition in the provincial election in 2007.

With files from the Canadian Press