Deborah Johnston — or Debbie as she prefers to be called — remembers the day in the early 1970s when she was working in the office of her dad’s plumbing business in Ingersoll, Ont., and a provincial official walked in.
He wanted to know if anyone was interested in becoming a plumbing apprentice.
“I told him there was nobody there except my dad and me,” recalled Johnston, 69. “And he said, ‘Well, how about you?'”
When he returned a couple of days later, Johnston signed up to become an apprentice, and by 1977 had become Ontario’s first female licensed plumber.
Now retired, Johnston remembers her early days on the job and is encouraging other
