Progressive Conservative leader — and new MHA — Ches Crosbie wants to see the date of next fall's provincial election changed to avoid potential confusion with the federal election set to happen around the same time.

"People get confused, party workers get worn out. There are lots of good reasons to change the date, and as the junior government I think it's Newfoundland and Labrador that's going to have to do that," Crosbie told CBC News after his swearing-in ceremony Friday.

The next provincial election is scheduled for Oct. 8, 2019, while the next federal election will be on or before Oct. 21, of the same year.

However, the election rules of the province allow for a change in the set date if the premier, in the months before voting day, feels the provincial date overlaps with a federal election.

In that case the rules stipulate the election could be moved to the last Monday of November, 2019.

Crosbie won the Windsor Lake byelection on Sept. 20 over Liberal Paul Antle and the NDP's newcomer Kerri Claire Neil, making him the official leader of the opposition.

"It's been a journey of over two years. Slow but steady, it was more of a marathon than a sprint," Crosbie told members of the media shortly after the ceremony concluded.

"The general quest for the leadership, and then to get myself properly invested as leader of the opposition, that's really been more than a two-year project now."

Crosbie admits that he's the new guy in the House of Assembly, adding he doesn't want to set expectations high but he does have an agenda.

"I think people are looking for a sense that somebody is in control, has an agenda for the future that makes sense, has policy options that can bring the province out of the doldrums that we're now in economically and in other ways," he said.

"And one thing I want to do, should I come into office next year, is I want to stop the drain of population out of this province and reverse that."

As for Muskrat Falls, Crosbie is looking to the future and said that's what voters ask of him.

"They're saying to me 'that's where we want you want to focus,' on the future and how to navigate our way through what seems to be a fair degree of mess that we've got ourselves in with Muskrat," he said.

"Voters are way less impressed with and interested in how we got here."