May was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Stephanie (Middleton), a sculptor, pianist, and writer, and John Middleton May, an accountant. Her father was born in New York and raised in England, and her mother was also a native New Yorker. She has a younger brother named Geoffrey. Her mother was a prominent anti-nuclear activist and her father was Assistant Vice President of Aetna Life and Casualty. The family moved to Margaree Harbour, Nova Scotia in 1972, following a summer vacation spent on Cape Breton Island. On moving to the province, the May family purchased a landlocked schooner, the Marion Elizabeth which had been used as a gift shop and restaurant since the mid 1950s. They operated this establishment from 1974 until 2002.

Elizabeth May relinquished her US citizenship in 1978, when she became a Canadian citizen, in accordance with American nationality law at the time.

May briefly enrolled at St. Francis Xavier University in 1974, but dropped out. Returning to Margaree, May took correspondence courses in restaurant management. Beginning in 1980, she attended Dalhousie Law School as a mature student, graduating in 1983.

Following law school at Dalhousie University, May worked as an associate at small law firm in Halifax.

May studied theology at Saint Paul University, a federated college of the University of Ottawa.

In 1980, May and others launched a political party to raise environmental and anti-nuclear issues dubbed "the Small Party". The party ran 12 candidates in six provinces in the 1980 federal election. May, at the time a 25-year-old waitress

I remember May being US-born from seeing her in 1970-80s vintage clips of being a shitlib even back then on Canadian television.

Daughter of two New Yorkers, mother a radical, impulsive parents that immigrated to run a cockamamie drydocked schooner theme restaurant. Already a know-it-all by 25 while working as a waitress.

TBH, I'm actually mild shocked she actually holds a law degree & did Theology Studies.