Series S13 - Personal

Robert J. Fleming was born 5 April 1925 in London, England, to a Canadian father and an American Mother. He was educated at Jarvis Collegiate, Appleby College and Lakefield College before studying photography under the British photographer Richard Haile in Washington, DC. From 1946 to 1964 Fleming worked as a photojournalist for Swiss and British agencies, travelling widely. He became a program officer with international Moral Re-Armament and worked in the production of magazines and the management of conferences.
He founded PACE Magazine (initially known as DARE), in Los Angeles with Stewart V. Lancaster, in 1964. It was a large-format picture magazine, similar to Life and Look, but with a focus on 18-34 year olds in America. An educational foundation, Pace Programs, Inc. was established in 1966. PACE ceased publication in 1970 after 62 issues and having reached a circulation of about 500,000 copies world-wide, due to rising expense of circulation and declining advertizing revenue. John M. Hallward, publisher of PACE, would later become an associate in Fleming’s firm.
Fleming returned to Canada in 1970 and founds the consulting firm – Robert J. Fleming & Associates, International Communicators, 1970-1974 [see background info in Assorted Fleming Projects file]; Among other projects he serves as communications advisor to the Mid-Atlantic Development Foundation and undertakes a re-organizational study of CMHC (this study’s report led to the creation of the Ministry of Urban Affairs).
He served as Executive Secretary of the Royal Commission on Book Publishing (1971) then the Ontario Commission on the Legislature (The Camp Commission, 1972) before becoming Principal Secretary (designate) for Robert L. Stanfield and member of the Transfer of Power Committee in 1974.
On 20 December 1974 (announced by Speaker 5 September 1974), Fleming becomes Director of Administration of Legislative Assembly at Queen’s Park, a position that was a recommendation of the Camp Commission and an out-growth of his work as Executive Secretary of the Commission. He was formally appointed by an Order in Council 1 Jan. 1975 and served in this position until 30 June 1987. While Director of Administration, he was the Co-Coordinator of The Canada-USA Legislative Project (1979-1988) and, in 1979, was founder and editor of the annual comparative study Canadian Legislatures (later known as Fleming’s Canadian Legislatures, 1979 to 1997).
Fleming worked with the Transition Committee for Joe Clark gov’t (1980) He founded youth Employment Skills Canada (YES Canada) in 1987, a national training program for high school drop-outs and founded Robert Fleming International Research (1988) [see background info in TRALAC file].
In 1998 he was a founding governor of the Toronto-based Canadian Journalism Foundation. He is a former Chairman of the Churchill Society for Parliamentary Democracy.