Born in Maxville, Ontario in 1933,[REF] he grew up as a ward of the provincial Children's Aid Society[REF] after his father abandoned the family and his mother was financially and emotionally unable to care for Lee and his brother David on her own as a single mother [REF].
He was a factory worker and trade unionist in his youth, and ran as a Cooperative Commonwealth Federation candidate in the electoral district of Broadview in the 1958 election.