[1] His father, Harry Wilson Dean, was employed at a hotel; his mother was Marie-Anne Grégoire.
[4] He became a trade unionist in 1960, as part of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and United Auto Workers in Drummondville.
[5] He was instrumental in creating 24 bargaining units at Hydro-Québec, after the provincial government nationalized electric utility in 1962.
[5] From 1969 to 1981, he served as vice president of the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec.
[1][6] However, he initially declined to run for politics, after René Lévesque requested that he stand in the 1976 Quebec general election.