Liberal interim leader Bob Rae says the party's first step will be to better focus its policy, rather than just be the "party of the centre."

"We have to talk about issues of substance to people and I think we have to talk with some real passion to the issues that matter to Canadians," Rae told CTV's Power Play. "I don't think we can just say we're in the middle between the two (other parties).

"We've got to stand for things and make sure people know what they are."

In particular, Rae pointed out healthcare and aboriginal issues as areas he thought the Liberals could champion.

"We still have vast pockets of poverty in the (aboriginal) communities . . . we have a third world in our midst," he said. "Anybody who really looks at this issue is going to say . . . ‘Yes, that is something we need to address.'

"We have to speak to those issues with passion and conviction and with knowledge and some proposals and some solutions," he added.

The Liberals named Rae as their interim leader earlier Wednesday, as the party tries to pick up the pieces after a devastating election that halved its caucus and dropped its former leader from Parliament.

Rae admitted the party undertook a "drubbing" during the election and said the "trend lines are not good."

Rae was named the party's interim leader during a caucus meeting on Wednesday morning.

The Toronto MP had to give up his long-term leadership ambitions in order to take the interim post.

But Rae told reporters Wednesday that he has "no illusions" about the challenges that lie ahead of him, and the fact that he must focus on the future of the party.

"I also have no qualms about saying that this is a limited term that I have accepted," Rae said.

"And I look forward to working within that term, to doing the best I can for the future of the party."

Rae will be the Liberal leader for the next 18 to 22 months, depending on when the next permanent leadership vote takes place.

Rae told reporters that he believes "the Liberal party has a future that is every bit as promising and great as our past achievements have been."

The only other party member publicly known to have been contesting Rae for the interim leadership role was Marc Garneau, a former astronaut who has held a Liberal seat in Montreal since the 2008 election.

Prior leadership ambitions

Rae previously sought the permanent Liberal leadership on two prior occasions, once as an elected MP and once when he did not hold a seat in Parliament.

The first time was in 2006, when both Rae and Michael Ignatieff lost to Stephane Dion.

The next time was in 2008, when Rae bowed out shortly before Ignatieff was named as the interim leader.

Ignatieff led the Liberals for more than two years before losing his parliamentary seat and resigning as party leader earlier this month. He has accepted an academic post at the University of Toronto that is to begin this fall.

After Ignatieff's defeat at the polls, it will be Rae who will be tasked with steering the Liberals through their first parliamentary session in which the party is not forming the government or the official opposition.

The Liberals will hold only 34 of 308 seats at the start of the next Parliament, ranking well behind the leading Conservatives and the New Democrats, who will form the Official Opposition for the first time.

Long past in politics

The 62-year-old Rae has held the seat of Toronto Centre for the Liberals for the past three years, after winning a byelection in March 2008.

He was one of only a handful of Liberal MPs to hang on to their seats after the May 2 election.

Years ago, Rae served as a New Democrat MP in Ottawa from October 1978 to March 1982, later leaving to take up the provincial NDP leadership in Ontario.

From October 1990 to June 1995, Rae served as the NDP premier of Ontario.

But he eventually cut ties with the NDP and joined the Liberal party.

Rae becomes the fifth person to lead the Liberals since early 2006.

Former prime minister Paul Martin resigned his position as leader after being defeated by

Prime Minister Stephen Harper during the 2006 election.

Bill Graham succeeded him as the acting Liberal leader in March 2006, a position he held until Stephane Dion won the leadership in December of that year.

Two years later, Ignatieff was named as acting leader, before winning the full leadership at a national party convention five months later.

Before Martin's departure, the Liberals had only 10 different leaders in the previous 133 years.

With files from The Canadian Press