Will gain seats in October, Liberals insist

With four months to overcome a massive spread in the polls, Newfoundland and Labrador's Liberals are spending this weekend looking for a way to take the wind out of Premier Danny Williams's sails.

The Liberals, who launch their annual convention Friday night in Gander, have long been trailing Williams's Progressive Conservatives by more than 50 points, according to a succession of tracking polls by Halifax-based Corporate Research Associates.

The latest poll, released earlier this week, showed the PCs had 73 per cent of decided voter support, far ahead of the Liberals' 19 per cent. The New Democrats has seven per cent.

The PCs have dominated CRA polls for more than two years. The last time the Tories and Liberals were competitive in polling data was in June 2004, shortly after a bitter one-month public service strike.

Yvonne Jones, a Liberal who has held the southern Labrador district of Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair for the Liberals since 1996, said polling data will become meaningless when the election campaign kicks into gear in earnest in the months ahead. The general election is scheduled for Oct. 9.

"We're going to win seats on the ground, in various areas of this province," Jones told CBC News.

"And we're going to come back to the house of assembly in the next session with more members than we have right now."

The Liberals currently hold 12 of the legislature's 48 seats.

Byelection victories

Despite Tory dominance in public opinion polls, the Liberals and the NDP were able to push back against the Williams machine inrecent byelections.

Last fall, NDP Leader Lorraine Michael held off a bid by star Tory candidate Jerome Kennedy in the St. John's district of Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.

In February, pharmacist Dwight Ball won the Humber Valley byelection, marking

the first time the Liberals were able to take a seat from the PC column since Williams became premier.

Liberal MHA George Sweeney who will be squaring off against Kennedy, a prominent St. John's criminal defence lawyer, in Carbonear-Harbour Grace in October discounts the poll spread, as well.

"Just how accurate that poll is, you know, I'm not hearing it in my district, and a lot of other districts outside the city are not showing 70 per cent, let me tell you," said Sweeney.

The margin of error in the latest poll is 4.9 per cent, which is comparatively wide for a provincewide poll.

Sweeney's comments, meanwhile, point to where the Liberals may be focusing their strategy. With no seats in the St. John's area to call their own, the Liberals have been pressing Williams hard on his agenda for rural communities.

Liberal leadership turnover

The Liberals went through internal turmoil in 2006, with Jim Bennett, an unelected lawyer from Daniel's Harbour, acclaimed as leader. He resigned only a few months later, after reports of conflicts with members of the caucus.

Twillingate & Fogo MHA Gerry Reid, who had served as interim leader following former premier Roger Grimes's retirement, took over the party's leadership after Bennett quit.

Tory members of the house of assembly tried not to gloat openly about the ongoing lead in the polls they have enjoyed. For John Hickey, a Labrador MHA who serves as transportation minister, the Liberals can only blame themselves.

"We see the lack of leadership over there on the Liberal side. Basically they're bankrupt of any new ideas and policies," Hickey said.

Nonetheless, Tory members of the house have made cracks through this spring's legislative session at the Liberals' expense, including over a "super weekend" of star-candidate nominations thatdelivered far lesscampaign-building buzz than the party had wished.