The Canadian Accounting Hall of Fame has announced its latest batch of inductees:

In the “founders of the profession” category, we have R. Douglas (Doug) Thomas, who passed away in 2004: “a transformative figure in Canadian and international accounting, known for his visionary leadership and commitment to advancing financial reporting and auditing standards. Over a distinguished 25-year career at the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) from 1960 to 1985, he played a pivotal role in modernizing the profession, strengthening its research and standard-setting functions and elevating Canada’s influence on the global stage.”

In the “leaders of the profession” category, again lifting some words from the official citations, we have:

• Steve Allan, a distinguished Alberta-based Chartered Professional Accountant recognized for his expertise in corporate restructuring, insolvency, and forensic accounting
• Denis L. Desautels, a chartered accountant who served as Auditor General of Canada (1991-2001), earning recognition as the “super cop of the deficit” for his relentless pursuit of government accountability.
• Patricia O’Brien, celebrated for her pioneering research on financial analysts and contributions to accounting education. 
• Jack Vicq, FCPA, FCA, a distinguished accounting professional with over six decades of contributions to accounting, education, and community service.

The category also includes, perhaps a little oddly, Richard (Dick) D. W. Pound, who one might not have known was a chartered accountant, given his much more visible activities in the fields of law, tax, and particularly sports (from Olympic swimmer to vice-president of the International Olympic Committee): perhaps not so much a leader of the profession as a multi-faceted surpasser of it. Given that choice, and the fact of there only being six inductees in total (in previous years the number was never less than eight), it’s hard not to suspect that the Hall’s energy may be flagging. (By the way, the fact of the five of the six being white men doesn’t say much for the hall of fame’s diversity efforts, such as they were, although it does by its nature pointedly contribute to the stated goal of providing a “curated biographical history of accounting in Canada (which) will benefit students and practitioners in developing their understanding of accounting in Canada.”)

Sad to say, a sense of declining enthusiasm is also evident in the Hall of Fame’s physical attendance numbers, which (I understand from a confidential source) were down 21% year-on-year: gift shop sales declined by 16%, with the Hall’s embrace of branded fast fashion (Al Rosen shorts, Jim Goodfellow crop tops etc.) generally considered a flop. Readers may recall from last year that I was boycotting the Hall as a protest against its failure to admit my nominated candidate, but given current hard times, I’m lifting that boycott as a gesture of solidarity and goodwill. Toward the goal of repairing broken bridges, I even volunteered to work a couple of shifts in the canteen, and can report that it remains almost as popular as ever with widows and bikers (but, strangely, a bit less so with actual accountants).

This may all flow in part from the bad publicity that accompanied the recent “payola” scandal in which it was claimed that induction to the hall of fame was basically available to the highest bidder, an impression fed by the brief appearance among the website’s list of 2025 inductees of 26-year-old Sarik Balabanov, a newly-qualified CPA employed in an undistinguished position at a low-profile manufacturing entity, but also the second cousin of a Russian billionaire oligarch. The website manager attributed this to a “software glitch,” and Balabanov denied ever having heard of the Hall of Fame, let alone pulling strings to be admitted into it. Still, it’s not unlikely that some residual suspicion and resentment continues to cloud the institution’s reputation.

The powers-that-be at the Hall didn’t however care for my suggestions for jazzing up the annual induction ceremony, such as engaging SNL’s Bowen Yang to host (or, in the likely event that the budget doesn’t stretch that far, some vaguely comparable Canadian). As an alternative I offered to host it myself, but all the living inductees said they’d then decline to attend. For the most part they perked up a little when I came up with the idea of engaging Overture: a Tribute to Rush to perform between induction speeches (“Overture captures the essence of Rush’s legendary sound and musicianship to deliver an unforgettable live experience with powerful and accurate delivery of songs from across the Rush catalogue”), but one of the inductees (I’ll never divulge which one, but let’s just say there was a “super cop” vibe to his attitude) dismissed not just Rush but the entire rock genre as “degenerate filth,” which constituted a powerful de facto veto.

So, summing that all up, the announcement of the Canadian Accounting Hall of Fame’s newest inductees ought to be one of the happiest days of the year, and God knows it used to be, but in the drab and challenged times we live in, even that falls a little flat. I’m still brainstorming for energy-boosting ideas though. Maybe something to do with AI-generated dragons…

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author.