Brian Land enrolled in the School of Graduate Studies in the fall of 1960 as a political science student. The opportunity for a thesis topic arose in the spring of 1962 as a federal election loomed. He chose to conduct a study of the campaign in the Eglinton constituency in Toronto, partly because he was a resident and because he had a personal acquaintance with a number of the principals involved.
Land offered his services to Donald Fleming, the long-standing Progressive Conservative member from the Toronto riding of Eglinton, and Minister of Finance in John Diefenbaker’s government. It was the first and only time that Land worked for a Conservative candidate. His notebook records that his first meeting was on May 10
and, over the next five weeks, he immersed himself in the strategy sessions, meetings, and envelope stuffing sessions and other activities of electioneering. He attended meetings of the Liberal candidate, Mitchell Sharp, as well as those of Mr. Fleming, and collected campaign literature from all parties.
This series contains background material to the constituency, Land’s notebook, correspondence, notes, membership and voter lists, poll revisions, maps, election results by poll, addresses, campaign literature and buttons, and press coverage. The bulk of the material relates to the Fleming campaign.
The records are grouped by function.