NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel.
Nycole Turmel vowed to cut off her remaining ties to the Quebec sovereigntist movement after revelations about her recent affiliation to the federal Bloc Québécois raised a furor over her ability to defend national unity as the interim leader of the NDP.
Ms. Turmel is meeting Canadians from British Columbia to Newfoundland as she takes over from an ailing Jack Layton, but she scrambled on Tuesday to reassure federalists about her commitment to Canada. She confirmed revelations in The Globe and Mail that she cancelled her Bloc membership only in January of this year, and added she will not renew her membership with the sovereigntist Québec Solidaire on the provincial stage.
"I am a federalist," the rookie MP and Interim Leader of the Official Opposition said in an interview. "I want to reassure people about my allegiance to the NDP, my allegiance to Canadians, and reassure them that we are getting ready for the fall sitting of Parliament to work on their behalf."
Insiders said the Bloc discussed leaking Ms. Turmel's links with the sovereignty movement during the last election, when she was a star candidate in Quebec, but decided it might fuel the migration of sovereigntist voters into the hands of the NDP.
Everything changed when Ms. Turmel became the interim leader of the NDP last week, as Mr. Layton left his position to fight cancer. In the new political environment, revelations about Ms. Turmel's ties to the Bloc fed a series of attacks by the other parties in the House and threatened to disrupt the delicate balance between the NDP's 59 MPs from Quebec and 44 others from the rest of Canada.
The governing Conservatives quickly jumped on Ms. Turmel's recent ties to the Bloc in a bid to attack the credibility of the NDP as a government-in-waiting.
"This is yet another worrying example of the NDP not being up to the job of governing Canada when its interim leader was a full member of the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois just a few short months ago," said Dimitri Soudas, spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The third-place Liberals also tried to undermine the second-place NDP, saying in a statement that Ms. Turmel and the party "have serious questions to answer about her personal views as well as the NDP caucus' position on Quebec sovereignty and the future of our country."
Bloc MP Louis Plamondon added he doesn't buy Ms. Turmel's assertion that she was always a federalist, given her more than four years as a Bloc member. "When you back a party, you back its program," Mr. Plamondon said.
NDP officials quickly closed ranks behind Ms. Turmel, using social media to point out how the party nearly obliterated the Bloc in the last election and noting that many other politicians have switched allegiance over the years.
Ms. Turmel added that she disclosed her Bloc membership as part of the vetting process to become an NDP candidate, saying Mr. Layton was "well aware" of the situation when he promoted her as his replacement last week.
Ms. Turmel has been a member of the NDP since 1991. She said she became a member of the Bloc after she retired as president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada in 2006, at the invitation of her friend and then-Bloc-MP Carole Lavallée. Ms. Turmel remained a Bloc member until January of this year, when she decided to run for the NDP and learned that the party didn't tolerate dual memberships. She acknowledged that she made a mistake.
"In retrospect, when you are affiliated to a party, you stay affiliated with that party," Ms. Turmel said.
She said that she will also distance herself from the left-wing Québec Solidaire by letting her membership lapse, adding her "first priority is the NDP."
Ms. Turmel sent back her membership card to the Bloc on Jan. 19 of this year in a signed letter to the party.
"Enclosed is my Bloc Québécois membership card, which I wish to cancel. I wish to state that my request has nothing to do with the party's policies, I am doing this for personal reasons," Ms. Turmel wrote.
In the interview, Ms. Turmel said she supported the Bloc's push for anti-scab legislation and positions in favour of pay equity, but not its sovereigntist agenda. She added her letter was vague because she wasn't ready to reveal her plans to run for the NDP to the Bloc.
In addition to buying her membership, Ms. Turmel made four donations totalling $235 to the Bloc between 2006 and 2011, according to party records. The donations, which ranged from $35 to $100, were not made public because they are under the $200 threshold for disclosure by political parties.
She easily beat the Liberal incumbent in the largely federalist riding of Hull-Aylmer by 23,000 votes on May 2, mainly on the strength of her past role as leader of the country's biggest public-sector union. Mr. Layton also made a number of appearances at her side before the vote.
Editor's Note: The original newspaper version of this article and an earlier online version incorrectly stated that Ms. Turmel had been a member of the Bloc for five years. Her membership lasted four years and one month. This online version has been corrected.