This article compares the development of the American and Canadian accounting professions from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to 2023 and the role of national traditions in shaping these developments. Larson's and Abbott's sociological theories of professions were used to understand the evolutions of each country's professional accounting. The USA stayed with the CPA designation for the entire study; Canada had three major professional accounting programmes that merged in 2012 into the CPA. The USA and Canada had some common traditions: a public accounting base that emphasised preparing quality candidates through formal education, experience, credentialism and continuing education. They have also followed differing paths as the profession has been defined, some of which reflected their differing national traditions. Our contribution is to show how these national traditions led to the actual evolution of the accounting professions in each country and the similarities and differences between them.
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