He was educated at Prince of Wales Collegiate and worked at various labouring jobs for a number of years, which eventually led him to become a labour organizer. Around the same time, he and his brother Charlie founded a literary magazine called "Protocol". Beginning in 1948 he worked closely with Joey Smallwood in the campaign to bring Newfoundland into Confederation. From 1949 to 1951, he was a member of the Newfoundland House of Assembly, sitting as the member for Labrador for Smallwood's Liberals. After leaving politics he started writing a political column for the "Evening Telegram" newspaper. Though he supported Smallwood at first, by the mid-1950s he had become one of the premier's harshest critics.