Professor Reg Stuart Interview
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Accounting History
20 years ago, Professor Reginald C. Stuart “wrote the book” on the history of certified general
accountants. Now, on the occasion of CGA Ontario’s 50th anniversary, the Canadian historian revisits
the Ontario roots of the “mighty oak” of CGA Canada.
Reginald (Reg) Stuart of Mount Saint Vincent University is describing his panoramic view of
historic Halifax Harbour: “My office looks out over the Bedford Basin,” explains the professor of
history and political studies. “I can see the navy, as there is a frigate at the moment moving slowly
towards the MacKay Bridge that crosses over to Dartmouth.” Fittingly, even the casual observations of
the Canadian expert on American expansionism are freighted with meaning; in an otherwise idyllic scene
of placid, historic waters, Professor Stuart has noted the sole metaphor of dark undercurrents.
The author of such comprehensive texts as War and American Thought: From the Revolution
to the Monroe Doctrine, United States Expansionism and British North America,
1775-1871, and the upcoming Dispersed Relations: Americans & Canadians
in Upper North America, Reg Stuart’s academic career has
been devoted to the historic ambitions of our neighbours to the south, with a wary eye cast to the
ramifications of manifest destiny. Of the myriad books in his office, his degrees, his awards, his Phi
Beta Kappa Society honour, the classical music buff is quick to cite as his most important object the
recent text by Randall and Thompson entitled
Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies.
It seems unlikely that this particular scholar would come to write the definitive history of the
Certified General Accountants Association, yet, as Stuart himself acknowledges, the origins of today’s
august institutions are often rooted in casual meetings and timely coincidence. In 1987, a coincidence
led to the penning of The
First Seventy-Five Years: A History of the Certified General Accountants’ Association
of Canada. 20 years later, Reg Stuart agreed to take a break from an afternoon of marking
final exams to revisit the origins of his “little book.”
In a wide-ranging, sometimes irreverent but relentlessly learned discussion, the professor recalls
how tennis led to the writing of The First Seventy-Five Years,
the genesis of the Association, the
foresight of certified general accountants, and the challenges to come in the profession of accounting.
Continued...
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