Stewart Johnston, Com鈥95, put his in-class lessons to the test early at Queen鈥檚, starting a business that not only developed skills he used in his media career, but also offered real-life experience that helped him understand that hard work matters when people count on you. After 28 years of applying those lessons at TSN and Bell Media, mostly in senior executive roles, Mr. Johnston became the 15th commissioner of the Canadian Football League in April 2025.
My first job with a paycheque was in high school when I worked at a self-serve gas station as the cashier 鈥 a one-man show over the course of the weekends when I wasn鈥檛 in school 鈥 but I feel like the job that set me on my course was running my own window-cleaning business for two summers in university.
I was at Queen鈥檚 in Commerce and looking for a summer job. There was no internet back then and I saw a posting on a bulletin board about a window-cleaning franchise. I鈥檇 seen College Pro Painters before, but I鈥檇 never seen window cleaning as a student-run franchise and I thought, 鈥淲ell, maybe if I haven鈥檛 seen it, that creates an opportunity.鈥
When I think of what that job instilled in me, first and foremost is work ethic 鈥 because if you鈥檙e not working, the business isn鈥檛 running. It was an all-consuming job for a couple of summers: cleaning windows, managing staff, phone calls and cash collection, doing estimates, knocking door to door, distributing flyers, and paying franchise fees. And, frankly, my first hires were good friends, so I had to manage relationships where it was personal, but now I was also the boss. I certainly felt a responsibility to them because they needed to fund their upcoming school year. So, if I didn鈥檛 market properly and I didn鈥檛 make sure they worked enough hours because we didn鈥檛 have enough customers, then they were going to be short money for their next semesters.
This reality required a lot of simple hard work to make sure we succeeded, but also a focus on being creative and innovative, which I believe applies to any job. I learned business management through school and then how to apply it through running a small business, and I took that education and real-life job experience with me when I joined the broadcasting world.
To a certain degree, that window-cleaning experience laid foundational skills for the CFL commissioner job. I manage a team at the office, but then I also manage the nine clubs and their owners 鈥 all of whom are fierce competitors on the field but who look to the CFL office to lead the league to profitability and success. Ultimately, our most important stakeholder, of course, is the customer, which includes our commercial partners and our passionate fans. Through creativity, innovation, strategic thinking, relationship building, and a customer-first mentality, the skills I first developed in my window-cleaning days continue to help me drive my business forward.
