Nova Scotia Liberals will gather in Dartmouth this weekend to pick their third leader in five years, hoping to choose one who can lift them out of their third-party status.

Four candidates are vying for the top job: Annapolis MLA Stephen McNeil, Halifax lawyer Kenzie MacKinnon, Colchester County Mayor Mike Smith and Halifax-Clayton Park MLA Diana Whalen.

The Liberals have wandered in the political wilderness for about a decade and currently hold only nine of the 52 seats in the legislature.

But party president Derek Wells said Nova Scotians are ready for a Liberal resurgence.

"It's clear in our view and I think clear from the polls that the province is not happy with the present government they're getting … and I think they're going to be looking very strongly at the Liberal party and at our new leader coming into another election," he said.

In the provincial election last June, then-leader Francis MacKenzie could not win a seat and resigned shortly after. Cape Breton MLA Michel Samson was chosen as interim leader.

The showing in 2006 was a far cry from the party's results 14 years ago when John Savage took 40 of the seats. The 1993 election was the Liberals' best showing proportionally since 1901, when the party took 38 of 40 seats.

The party has also seen a drop in membership, from a high of about 21,000 in the last two leadership races to about 8,200 this time around.

To overtake the NDP or dethrone the Tories, political watchers say the Liberal party will have to find a way to build support beyond its strength in Cape Breton and four electoral districts along the Bay of Fundy, from Berwick to Bear River, near Yarmouth.

For this leadership convention, each of the 52 riding associations will send 30 party members who will vote. It's a switch from the one-member, one-vote system the Liberals have used since 1992.