Lady Squires had completed courses in elocution and public speaking at the Emerson College of Oratory in Boston, taken a course at the Harvard University Summer School, and studied Domestic Science at the Farmer Cooking School and Interior Decorating while visiting New York. Interested in child welfare and public health, she was for many years president of the Grace Hospital Auxiliary. In 1930 she was elected to the Newfoundland House of Assembly as the member for Lewisporte in a by-election necessitated by the death of George Grimes qv. Ironically, both Lady Helena and her husband, the Prime Minister, had strenuously opposed giving women the vote during Sir Richard's first term in office (1919-23). Female suffrage was introduced in 1925, after Sir Richard's first fall from popular favour. Lady Squires was defeated as a Liberal candidate in 1932.
Her last role in Newfoundland public life was in 1949 when she was elected the first president of the Liberal Association of Newfoundland, presumably a gesture initiated by Liberal leader J.R. Smallwood, who had considered her husband a mentor.