Remember the Metric System?
by modern living editor Jason Capodimonte
September 7, 2005
Remember the metric system? Whatever happened to that thing, anyway?
The initiative to convert Canada to metric measurement began in 1971, with the establishment of the Metric Commission. The Commission set up over a hundred committees to plan conversion in different sectors. The first step in metrication was the introduction of metric measurement to product labels in 1975.
Then over the next few years metric measurement was introduced to weather reports, automobile speedometers and odometers, road signs, gasoline sales, fabric sales and sales of individually measured food.
But a few people got hysterical and deadlines for further conversion started to be missed. Then Brian Mulroney became prime minister.
He disbanded the Metric Commission and announced that new provisions for the introduction of metric measurement would be introduced which would not require the exclusive use of metric measurement. The new provisions were never introduced.
Mr. Mulroney and his successors had more important things to worry about apparently, like losing the Charlottetown referendum and trying to lose the 1995 Quebec referendum. Measurement Canada has undertaken no initiative to complete metrication.
And so now we live in a country where gasoline is sold by the litre and fabric by the metre, but real estate is sold in square feet and acres and men's clothing measurements are all in inches. Lumber and home furnishings are sold in Imperial measures. Beverages come in a mix of metric and Imperial containers – while they are all labelled in metric units, many are in non-standard sizes which are simply translations of old Imperial sizes. For example, beer is sold in twelve-ounce bottles. The brewers were allowed originally to skip metrication because they used a standard bottle which simplified recycling. However, when the brewers abandoned the stubby and started using non-standard bottles no one bothered to make them convert to metric measurement.
Well, no country has wiped out old measures completely. Even in France, which invented the metric system, many goods are still sold by the pound (defined as 500 grams).
But has anyone else ever just got tired of converting to metric measurement and stopped halfway? Officially?
Well, Canadians are not fond of standardization. After setting up, in 1867, a country with a strong federal government, Canadians quickly got tired of that and campaigned for strong provincial governments instead. That campaign (led, amusingly enough, by now proudly federalist Ontario) culminated in an Imperial Privy Council decision of 1896 which effectively hamstrung the federal government. As a result of this decision, many responsibilities which would previously have been considered part of the federal government's residuary power ended up being handed over to the provinces. As a result of these responsibilities being given to the provinces, standards of service in important domains – health care, for instance – started to vary from province to province. Our current system of federal transfers and equalization payments is justified as necessary to provide similar standards of service across the country, but we still don't have standard health care or education, for example.
I could offer some other examples, but the difference between all of them and our system of weights and measures would be that there is at least some reason behind the other examples of non-standardization.
You know, people could learn how big a 40-cm shirt collar is, or how much beer is in a 30-cl can. They could even learn what cl stands for – another aspect of our half-assed metrication is that units such as the centilitre have never been introduced. Instead we have to know two systems, one of which is no longer taught in the schools. Does that seem like an efficient use of Canadians' time to you?
Metrication was part of Pierre Trudeau's effort to make Canada less dependent on the United States; for example, it was supposed to facilitate trade with the metric world. That effort failed, though, and Mr. Trudeau's successors have been considerably less bothered by Canada's dependence on the States.
Well, do we want to be, if not independent from the States, at least different? Then let's complete metrication. Do we want to go on being dependent on the United States (while, of course, remaining morally superior)? Then let's go back to Imperial measure. Do we want to make a decision? No – we're Canadian.
Remember the Metric System? © John FitzGerald, 2005
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