Retrospect, Canadian culture, lifestyle: adoption of metric, part one

Self-tutoring about Canadian history: the tutor mentions Canada’s adoption of the metric system in the 1970s and 80s.

The following is according to my understanding.

When I started elementary school, distances were in miles. Car economy was in miles per gallon. I think gas must have been sold in gallons but I wasn’t aware of those units.

In kindergarten and grade one, I don’t recall using rulers to measure things. However, people’s heights were in feet and inches. Weight was in pounds.

I couldn’t have told you, back then, that we used the imperial system. I don’t recall hearing, for instance, “we use miles, feet, inches and pounds because we used the imperial system of measurement.”

I recall hearing about the metric system but didn’t know what is was at first. Some people weren’t best pleased about it, though. That was in PEI, a very traditional place. My impression, however, was it wasn’t just there that people were unhappy about changing to the metric system.

In September, 1977, when I was starting grade two, they changed the road signs to km and km/h. Even I could tell this was a big deal. It didn’t affect me, of course, but I recognized it as a change in language. I still recall the first road sign I saw with km/h written on it.

I never learned the imperial system in school. Although our parents talked about feet and inches, I learned metres and centimetres in school. Later came kilograms, litres, etc.

There is a charming duality in culture that started from then: kids’ heights and weights continued to be measured in feet and inches, their weight in pounds, but in school they didn’t use inches, feet, or pounds.

By the time I was in grade 12, I understood the superiority of the metric system versus imperial, from a science point of view. Any student in physics, chemistry, etc., would. If electricity has ever been measured in non-metric units, I don’t know them. Nonetheless, I recall one of my physics teachers observing that, for everyday measurements, inches seem more useful than centimetres.

In Canada, the duality continues, probably because the US still uses the imperial system, which means the mechanic trade largely still uses it. Nonetheless, it seems to me that the change to metric continued after I left school. For instance, I know millennials who seem only to think in terms of kilograms rather than pounds. I still weigh myself in pounds.

Beside the first road sign I saw in km/h, a speed limit was painted on the road, in white: 10 mph. (This was on a military base.) The painted message wasn’t changed to km/h; rather, it was just allowed to fade. When I left that base at the end of winter, 1980, I recall still being able to read the white paint. By then, it was the only trace I knew of miles-per-hour signage.

Source:

thecanadianencylopedia.ca