For more than 50 years, Canada’s dual system of measuring things has been a source of confusion for traders, artisans, newcomers and anyone who has ever been asked about their weight in kilograms.
Why, for example, outside temperatures are measured in Celsius – until you enter the pool? Why do we order our morning coffee in ounces but buy milk in liters?
Canada is officially a “metric” country, but many industries and people are working on imperial measurements, adding to the cost and complexity of the business and complicating daily tasks, from buying products to ordering a drink.
- Canadians tend to use a combination of metric and imperial measurement systems. Is it time for Canada to go completely metric? Tell us what you think at ask@cbc.ca
Canada may soon have a new ally in mixing its measurements: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reportedly planning to announce the revival of the imperial system on the Queen’s anniversary. This move will allow stores to sell products in pounds and ounces, as well as in grams, which will further distance the United Kingdom from Europe, which uses the metric system.
“It’s crazy,” said Professor Werner Antweiler, an economist at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, about the change proposed by the United Kingdom.
“It’s just populism. It has absolutely nothing to do with the economy. It’s detrimental to the economy. It’s detrimental to Britain’s trade interests, because most of their trade is still in the European Union, like it or not.”
A group of British shopkeepers known as the “Metric Martyrs” held imperial pints before a court in London on November 20, 2001. The men were convicted of selling products under the imperial weight system after the United Kingdom imposed European regulations stating that the metric system must take precedence. Britain is now expected to allow shopkeepers to use the imperial system again. (Russell Boyce / Reuters)
The United States, Myanmar, and Liberia are the only countries that still use the imperial system every day.
Antweiler and others – including some who work entirely in the imperial system – say Canada must go the other way from the United Kingdom, abandoning the imperial system and moving entirely to the metric, like most of its trading partners.
The continued use of both systems in Canada, Antoine said, adds “an extra layer of complexity and an additional source of error and an additional source of cost because you now have to meet the other standard.”
But greater measurement will require involvement in a variety of industries, from engineering and real estate to agriculture and brewing – and could create new headaches for Canadian business with customers across the southern border.
When Canada became metric
To find out why most Canadians know their height in feet and inches, but measure their plans to travel miles, you have to go back to 1970. Then the federal government launched the Metric Commission to transform Canada from imperial to metric and educate the public how to use the new system.
The Metrics Commission announced that Canadian schools would start teaching metric weights and measurements as early as 1975 (CBC News / CBC Archives).
In 1975, time broadcasts shifted from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Food packaging and street signs were soon changed to metric units, and by 1979 gas stations filled tanks per liter instead of gallons.
For many industries, however, the change was voluntary. Against the backlash of them, as well as some members of the public and the United States – who abandoned their own metrification plans in the early 1980s – Canada fell into measurement uncertainty at the time the Metric Commission was abolished in 1985
WATCH In 1985, Canadians were still confused about the metric system:
Measurements in metric and imperial units confuse Canadians
Canada is measuring in two systems these days and it’s getting confusing.
Today, entire industries – such as construction and other crafts – still operate in the imperial system or a mixture of the two, which requires a level of bilingualism in two measurement systems.
The argument for accuracy
Like most retailers, Toronto cabinet maker Greg Mugk works almost exclusively in the imperial system, except when an architect gives him metric drawings, as is sometimes the case with high-rise construction projects, or when he buys products outside of North America.
“It’s much, much easier to be more accurate in the metric system,” Mugg said, adding that he had received requests such as “just cut it a hair over 1/16 of an inch” – as if I had an idea of what it was. . “
“If we had the opportunity to suddenly eliminate the imperial system, it would obviously be strange for a minute, because everyone [in the trades] will have to learn the metric system. But it’s so much easier [to use] “It’s a lot harder for someone to navigate fractional math than really easy decimal places, isn’t it?”
Other creators face similar challenges when working between the two systems.
“The tools we use to make quilts [are] everything in imperial proportions… But in Canada, when we go to buy fabric, we buy it in meters, not yards, ”said Karen Niri, a quilt designer from Amherst, NS
It includes both measurement systems for its models so that customers can understand how much fabric they need – no matter where in the world they are.
The United Kingdom is ready to return some imperial measures, which means that, like the Canadians, the British will use two measuring systems in their daily lives. Here, a tailor in London, UK, holds a tape measure showing inches and centimeters – measurements that Canadian craftsmen often have to convert between. (Hannah McKay / Reuters)
“The metric is much easier, because if someone says ‘five-eighths of a yard’ or whatever, you have to stop and think, well, what is it?” She said.
“But I really can’t see us going all the way to metrics, because all the instruments, all my rulers are quarter-quarters, everything is quarter-quarters.”
These measurements become even more confusing when you consider beer, which is measured differently depending on whether you buy it in a box or on tap. A tall box contains 473 ml (equivalent to 16 ounces or US pints), but go to a bar and order a pint and you will get 20 ounces (imperial pint).
For those in the brewing industry, switching between these measurements is “second nature,” said Keira Ditch, marketing manager at Muskoka Brewery in Braysbridge, Ont.
“We walk the line between the two and end up using them so interchangeably that we don’t even notice… When I walk into a restaurant, I order in ounces; when I look at cans, I call them milliliters. So it really depends on the shape. “
Time for a change?
Switching between the two is easier in some industries than in others. It can be as simple as exchanging ounces with milliliters on a coffee shop menu, labeling wood in centimeters, or printing Celsius measurements on oven buttons.
“I would say that 80% of the history of metrification is just the desire to actually put different labels on things and basically encourage people to use an international standard,” Antweiler said.
Construction and other crafts are among the Canadian industries that operate primarily in the imperial system – largely due to American influence. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
But some industries will need to take further steps, such as retraining workers as engineers and architects, and companies may need to change their production lines or other operations to adapt, depending on which countries their customers are located in. .
Antweiler believes that complete change would only be possible if the federal government allowed it – and it is unlikely to happen.
In a statement to CBC News, a spokesman for Canada’s Innovation, Science and Economic Development said the government “supports and encourages the use of metrics, but understands that some Canadians feel more comfortable with the imperial system. Therefore, the use of both measurement systems is permitted in trade. “
Despite all the confusion in the Canadian measuring system, it is a source of hope for those who can only dream of living in a country where things are measured in meters and liters – like Don Hilger, president of the American Metric Association, which works in resistance to more than 100 years while urging the United States to adopt the metric system.
“I even have relatives who say, ‘Please don’t do this, don’t encourage it [metrication]”Until they die because they don’t want to learn metrics,” Hilger said.
Proponents of the metric system say it’s time for Canada to stop using imperial, such as measuring their height or short distances in feet and inches. Here the seats are allocated – in inches – for an event in Three Rivers, PEI, on March 17, 2021 (Jane Robertson / CBC)
He says he hears a lot of younger people who think it’s “ridiculous that the United States is the main holder.” But it is unclear when – or whether – his country can join the rest of the world in moving to metrics.
“You have to get more people to ask for it before it actually takes place in the United States. And I don’t think we’re right now, “he said. But he added: “I think it will help if Canada changes.”
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