Can Yvonne Jones save the Liberals?

Yvonne Jones, who has just 14 months to rebuild the financially troubled Liberal party for the next Newfoundland and Labrador election, is not one to boast about taking down Danny Williams.

In fact, when the head of the provincial Liberals was asked during an interview this week whether she can defeat Williams and the governing Progressive Conservatives in the next election, Jones opted instead to talk about weaknesses in the government, such as secretiveness and the rough shape of the fishery and forestry.

Pressed again on expectations of the scheduled October 2011 election, Jones laid out a less lofty ambition than forming the next government.

"At the end of the day, I think we will see a lot more seats for the Liberal party in the house of assembly after the next election," she told CBC News this week, a few days after she was formally acclaimed as leader of the provincial Liberal party.

Jones had been serving as the interim leader since the fall of 2007, weeks after a landslide Tory win left the Grits with just three of the legislature's 48 seats.

Since then, the caucus has expanded by one, due to a byelection win on the Northern Peninsula last year.

No caretaker

Still, Jones said critics who assume she is keeping the Liberal leader's chair warm for a star candidate to emerge later are dead wrong.

"I certainly don't see myself as a caretaker at all," Jones said in an interview. "I see myself as [leading the party] into the next election with a good slate of candidates, with some sound policy to present to people, and to give people a good alternative, and that's exactly what we'll do."

However, Jones admitted that being acclaimed as the leader says something about the state of the Liberals, who struggled in the last election to put the names of high-profile candidates on ballots.

"They've been polling strong numbers," Jones admits of the PCs, adding that some would-be leadership candidates likely stayed away because of the overwhelming lead that Williams has had in the polls.

Tory dominance

In March, Corporate Research Associates reported that its regular quarterly tracking of voter intentions found that a record 80 per cent of decided voters in Newfoundland and Labrador would have chosen a PC candidate if an election had been held then.

'I've always been underestimated.' —Yvonne Jones, Liberal leader

With numbers like that, it's not a surprise that Jones makes no predictions about forming the government in 2011.

But Jones said she intends to work vigorously in the months ahead, bringing a series of town halls and economic forums to districts across the province. Her three goals are candidate recruitment, building a new platform and raising cash.

The last goal is a large obstacle in itself. The party has been debt-ridden since it lost office in 2003. Jones said the party currently owes banks somewhere between $500,000 and $600,000.

Still, she said no one should write her off.

"I've always been underestimated," she said.

"I've found that out throughout political life … The way I operate, I keep my head down, I work hard and I take my job very seriously," she said. "At the end of the day, the reward for our party will be seen by all people in the province."