How Did Sir Sam Hughes Change Canada

1914 was a drastic year not only for Canada, but also for the entire world as it experienced the beginning of the Great War. Economies fell drastically, lives were lost, families were separated, cities and towns were destroyed etc The war lasted for four years and these were four important years for Canada for towards the lapse of the fourth year, Canada had gained recognition all over the world. Canada had started emerging as a much stronger nation. When the First World War broke out in 1914, Canada was a much different country than it is today. At that time, Canada had a small population of eight million people. Still, more than 620,000 men served in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. Within the first two days of the war, the Canadian forces had started organizing themselves under Sir Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia and Defense. He appealed to the people of Canada, "I call for volunteers - volunteers, mark you. I have insisted that it be a purely volunteer contingent."

Sir Sam Hughes was Minister of Militia and Defense from October 1911 to November 1916. His decisive attitude strongly influenced the organization of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Over confident about himself, he led his department in a manner that often brought controversies. Some of the actions he took were
This was his nepotism and favoritism for his buddies in the business. He also setup a Shell Committee that would manufacture shells to British army and contracts worth 170 million dollars were signed; however, shells worth only 5.5 million dollars were manufactured and handed. The rest of the money was split among his friends and Sam Hughes himself, and a majority of it was spent on buying alcohol. Even the contract of "painting the horses" was given to one of his business friends; even this job wasn't completed properly as the colours weren't right. The same was the case of "shoes with cardboard