 Sir Samuel Hughes, who became the minister of defence and militia in 1911 after the Conservatives won the general election that year, become the dominating force in Canadian defence policy.Hughes was described by the Canadian historian René Chartrand as a man of tremendous energy, charisma and a forceful personality who was also a megalomaniac with a grotesquely inflated sense of his own importance and a "stubborn, pompous racist" who did little to disguise his anti-Catholic and anti-French views.As the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden, was afraid of Hughes, the militia minister played an oversized role in defence decision-making.