Yvonne Jones says Newfoundland and Labrador's Liberals are ready to rebuild its membership base in advance of a 2011 election. (CBC)

Almost wiped off the political map two years ago, Newfoundland and Labrador's Liberals said a weekend convention shows the party is prepped to rebuild itself as a government in waiting.

Reduced to three of 48 seats in the house of assembly in the 2007 election, the Liberals — who held their annual convention this weekend in Gander — admit they have their work cut out for them, given Premier Danny Williams's still-soaring popularity.

Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones said the buoyant mood at the convention shows the party, which Williams and the Progressive Conservatives knocked from office in 2003, is getting its act together.

"We're readying ourselves, and we honestly believe that people will recognize that this government has not made real progress and real contributions for the long-term benefit of the province," Jones said.

Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was the keynote speaker for Saturday night's banquet. Jones said the provincial Liberals are taking energy from what Ignatieff has brought to the national party.

She said the party is ready to put an end to the outcome of the last election, and lay out the groundwork for a comeback in the next election, scheduled for October 2011.

"[It] doesn't mean that Liberals are going to roll over, or Liberals are going to walk away, or Liberals are going to closet themselves," she said. "What this means is that we're preparing for the days ahead."

A major part of the rebuilding process will involve reaching out to more people, said Torbay resident Tonia Power, who ran unsuccessfully in a recent byelection.

"We should be focusing more on giving people information the way that they are now accessing it," she said.

"I think that once we achieve that, we're going to see a huge number of people coming into the fold."