Lea worked on the committee that organized the Summit Citizen's Conference, the counter-summit to the G-7 meetings taking place in Toronto in 1988.

He was the director of facilities at Hart House at the University of Toronto, where as part of a team he won a Green Innovation Award in 2010, for a project to utilise electrical power generated from exercise bikes.

Aided by de Jong and Steve Kisby, Lea was the first to compile a comprehensive Green Party policy document for electronic distribution.

As leader, Lea made presentations to royal commissions on electoral reform and on financing the CBC[clarification needed], sometimes in French.

As well Lea helped to organize party conferences and took part in legal challenges against the broadcast consortium that regulates the televised debates during the election period.

As party leader, Lea campaigned for the House of Commons of Canada in the 1993 federal election, and received 613 votes in the Toronto riding of Trinity—Spadina for a sixth-place finish.