Sam Hughes: The Public Career of a Controversial Canadian, 1885-1916

James G. Snell is a history professor at the University of Guelph,
author of In the Shadow of the Law: Divorce in Canada, 1900-1939, and
co-author of The Supreme Court of Canada: History of the Institution.

Sam Hughes was one of the most colourful personalities ever to be part of the Canadian political scene. From the author’s point of view, this fact has coloured all previous writing about Hughes. But the fact is that Sam Hughes was also a successful and very influential politician. He was a Tory member of Parliament for 30 consecutive years, and minister of militia for five years in the cabinet of Sir Robert Borden. That portfolio dramatically changed from a minor one to one of great significance when Canada went to war in 1914, and Hughes was in charge. It is here that the importance of his career chiefly lies.

Ronald Haycock subdues the coverage of Hughes’ remarkable personality in a generally successful attempt to understand his ideas as a politician and his policies as minister. This is a balanced treatment of the subject, seeking to understand his excesses, mistakes and achievements. Haycock’s analysis attributes much to Hughes as an “old time politician” in an age when politics, politicians, and government were changing dramatically. Sam Hughes’ strength as a constituency man was his weakness as a minister and parliamentarian; he failed to adapt to changing needs and it is not at all certain that he ever realized that fundamental change was taking place all around him in government.

The author uses this explanation to account for many of the mistakes made by Hughes or his department. In doing so, Haycock glosses over Hughes’ ultimate responsibility for maladministration and for related scandals in his department and in the Shell Commission. Nevertheless, this biography is a valuable contribution to our understanding of early twentieth-century Canadian politics.