Interview with Leonard Lee

I just got back from an interview with Leonard Lee, founder of Lee Valley Tools. I didn’t know that he grew up on a homestead in Saskatchewan, then worked for the foreign service and THEN founded Lee Valley Tools (which started by selling barrel stoves and now has 850 employees).  He and his wife also own Algrove Publishing. He wanted to publish books because, as he says, “There were never enough of them around when I was growing up.” This Saturday, December 15, I’m doing a story for CBC’s In Town and Out about Mr. Lee and his Ottawa Valley “consultants.” The consultants are the people, mostly women, who approach him with product ideas. For example, the world’s best seam ripper!