it less badly. In the 1988 election, the Liberals only experienced a moderate recovery, doubling the number of seats they won in 1984. Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney won a second consecutive majority government. Turner losing for a second time led him to announce his resignation as Liberal leader in 1989, triggering the June 1990 Liberal leadership election. Chrétien returned to politics in 1990 for the purpose of becoming leader. 1990: Returns to politics and wins Liberal leadership Chrétien announced that he would run for the party leadership at the June 1990 Liberal leadership convention in Calgary, Alberta. At a press conference in Ottawa on January 23, 1990, Chrétien declared that he would run to be the leader and proudly stated that the day would be remembered as the beginning of the "Chrétien era" in Canada. Chrétien's principal opponent, Paul Martin, was generally seen as the ideological heir to John Turner, and Chrétien was seen to be the ideological heir to Trudeau. The fact that most of the Liberals who had supported Turner in the 1980s supported Martin in 1990 confirmed Chrétien's disdain for Martin, whom he saw as a Bay Street "big shot," like Turner. The most controversial issue facing Canada in the first half of 1990 was the Meech Lake Accord of 1987. It proposed a set of constitutional amendments that would have seen a significant devolution of federal powers to the provinces and a clause that would have recognized Quebec as a "distinct society" within Canada. Chrétien had announced in a speech in January 1990 that he was an opponent of Meech Lake but stated that he would support the accord with amendments such as scrapping the controversial "distinct society" clause as written; having the preamble to the constitution instead declare that Quebec was a "distinct society"; and adding a new clause saying if any conflict arose between the constitutional recognition of Quebec as a "distinct society" and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the latter would always prevail. The "distinct society" clause theoretically could have been the basis of a wide-ranging devolution of federal power since the clause might have empowered the Quebec government to pass any law short of secession to protect the "distinct society." That made the clause very popular in Quebec and arose much passionate opposition by many quarters in English Canada. In a much-discussed essay, Trudeau had warned that giving Quebec