Canada is supposed to be metric but...?

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Explorer

They supply both measurements for convenience.
Don't forget, half of Canada was raised on the imperial system, the rest of us know metric.
I am 38, so the year I started in the first grade was also the first year we were taught both metric and imperial.
It takes time to fully implement anything as drastic as a complete change of any system that a large and aging group depended on.

kingstonsean

Canada went metric about 30 or so years ago, but many of us grew up with Imperial units of measurement (feet, miles, gallons, etc.) so that's what we're used to. Many people just can't picture what it means to be 183 centimetres tall, but we can picture someone being 6 ft tall. We're also heavily infuenced by what happens in the US, where they refuse to join the modern world - I guess they just can't break certain ties to Great Britain! And just about all the games we play are measured in feet or yards, like football, baseball, hockey, etc. Track and Field uses metric measurements.

jaffermaniar

Thats true.

The use of Metric system in Canada depends on age and region.

Some Elderly still prefer to mesure temperature in Fahrenheit and Distance in Miles.

Measuring Height in Feet and Inches is still tradition but hospitals and Government will measure in SI

In fields like Real estate and Grocery Using Imperial units is largely a money-making scheme rather than tradition.

A square foot is smaller than a square meter and thus "Dollars per sq.ft " is smaller than "Dollars per sq. meters"

A pound is smaller than a kilogram: a pound of apples costs less than a kilogram of apples.

A smaller price-tag attracts customers. Although all major supermarkets do label price per kilogram in smaller print.

In Quebec, SI units are more widely used - but not entirely.

SteveN

It is a throwback to older times. When I was young, I grew up with parents who did everything in imperial measurements. We weighed things in pounds, measured things in inches and feet, and still do cooking and baking in cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons.

About the only things that I've picked up from the metric system are gas (sold in litres), driving (measured in kilometers or Kph), and weather (celsius).

I do a lot of construction as a hobby, and you still buy wood at the Home Depot as a 2"X4", or plywood in 4'X8' sheets. We measure our landscaping in feet or yards.

What you need is for the younger generations to pick up the metric measurements and start using them more, and we will see that become more and more accepted as the norm. This probably will happen a generation from now, once the baby boomers are gone and their children have had children.

By the way, are you aware that US Congress also passed the Metric Conversion Act way back in 1975? The problem is it was never adopted by the average citizen as they just could not get comfortable with metric units for highway distances, weather reports, and building construction. The only place it was picked up was in science and the pharmaceutical industries, where Americans buy their painkillers and drugs in X milligrams.

PAWS

It's easier to remember!!

khrystenat

I work in an industry where everything in my computer is in KG but i have to tell people the weight in LBS.

It is as other people said the fact that a good portion of our population grew up using feet and inches and i went to school i learned cm and mm.

on the other hand, there are only a handful of countries on earth that still use Lbs and inches, the rest of the world uses KG and CM.

the US being one of them, a country in Africa and a country in Asia still using Imperial measurments.

K M

Because we switched to the metric system in 1975 and a lot of people, especially older people, still do not understand it. We cook using pounds to measure our food but have to buy it in kilograms (and stand there figuring out the difference).

It has long been speculated that the metric system was brought in to place to hide our rising gas prices and allow for more taxation of the fuel on a per litre basis.

sambot

All measurements have to be in metric. It's the law.

Old farts know that there are 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, and 5,280 feet in a mile. The young whippersnappers know that there are 10 mm in a centimetre, 100 centimetres in a metre and so on. The middle agers are somewhat bilingual, knowing a little about each method of measure, and hey, there's lots of boomers around. Constantly translating measurements keeps them mentally agile.

Oh yeah, pre metric Canada used imperial gallons, which are bigger than US gallons (40 oz).
Go figger.

kicking4jc

I don't understand it either, because the speed limit signs are all in kilometers per hour rather than miles.

I guess it is because they speak both French and English.

But then again, I don't really know.

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