This subseries contains records of the routine administration of Diefenbaker’s legal practice. There are financial records, legal diaries, and administrative correspondence. There is also correspondence with Diefenbaker’s partners and other lawyers and judges.

This series contains the records of John Diefenbaker’s personal and political activities before his election to Parliament in May 1940, excluding his legal papers (MG 01/I Legal Series) and his family correspondence (MG 01/V Legal Series). There is material about his education at the University of Saskatchewan and his military career during the First World War. There is a large section on the Saskatchewan provincial Conservative Party which he led from 1936 to 1939. This series also contains transcripts of the Bryant Commission Inquiry into jails and provincial police for which Diefenbaker served as legal counsel. Diefenbaker received many requests for assistance from members of the general public which provide information about the wide range of political, social and financial problems Saskatchewan experienced in the 1920s and 1930s.

This subseries consists of personal records and general correspondence, including Diefenbaker’s financial records, invitations, and requests for assistance from persons outside of Diefenbaker’s constituency.

This series contains reference material collected by Diefenbaker and his office staff while Prime Minister and during his second term as Leader of the Opposition. It includes correspondence, reports, speech notes, press clippings, and some published material.

Thomas Van Dusen served as executive assistant to John Diefenbaker from 1964-1967.

This series contains office diaries, itineraries, telephone lists and similar material used by Diefenbaker’s staff.

This series contains reference material collected by John Diefenbaker and his staff from 1940, when he was elected to Parliament, to 1957, when he became Prime Minister. A wide range of political and social subjects, both Canadian and international, are present.

This series contains press clippings on a wide variety of Canadian and international social and political topics which John Diefenbaker collected.

This series contains photographs and slides belonging to John Diefenbaker and his family. It includes many professional portraits of Diefenbaker and his second wife Olive. There are some historic photographs collected as a result of Diefenbaker’s interest in Canadian history and Sir John A. Macdonald.

John Diefenbaker entered the University of Saskatchewan College of Law in 1916, and was called to the Saskatchewan Bar in June, 1919. Upon graduating he opened a private practice in Wakaw, Saskatchewan and carried on a busy practice until 1924 when he moved to Prince Albert. The Wakaw office was managed by a succession of partners until its closure in 1929. Diefenbaker worked privately and in partnership until the early 1940s when he established a partnership with John Cuelenaere. They were joined by Roy Hall in 1947 and by Clyne Harradence in 1955. After his election to the House of Commons in 1940, legal material was forwarded to Ottawa. This arrangement continued until 1956 when he was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, and he thus gave up his legal practice. Diefenbaker became a King’s Counsel in 1929, and was also a member of the Bars of Alberta, British Columbia and Upper Canada.

This series contains those papers accumulated by John Diefenbaker in the course of his legal practice, although records are incomplete.