Metric mess in Canada?

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badger123ca

I'll take metric over the old Imperial system any day. I was still in Junior High School when the country switched over to metric, and I function almost exclusively in metric. Some things, like housing, still use the old system since that's what was in use when most of them were built; land was surveyed in acres, sections, etc. We're likely always going to be stuck with some of the old system running around, unfortunately.

Randy B

Officially metric is used but for many of us who grew up with imperial we still use it, or at least a combination of the two. I'm 45 so metric came in after I was done in school and yes, I talk about some place being 100 km away but say that I'm 6'1". Over time, as with any newly introduced system, it will take time for us old farts to die off and you young pups can have all the metric you can stomach.

The other issue is that our major neighbor and trading partner never changed over to metric (I guess they are too good for the metric system) and without their having changed we get both systems so both will live on somewhat.

Mathew H

My opinion is skewed becuase I've worked as a land surveyor....

Metric is vastly superior to Imperial (or whatever Imperial's weird cousin is in the USA). It's very easy to comprehend, everything is based around units of 10. Take the Meter for example.

You have a milimeter, centimeter, decamtere, meter, kilometer, etc. The other way you got yards, feet, inches, etc... none of them truly divisible like the metric measurements.

I just find metric alot easier to comprehend and dissect.

I think the reason we still often times measure things the old way is because old habits are hard to break.

chuckles951

I am a Canadian living in LA and I hate the old imperial system they use here. At least in Canada, you end up having to use both systems and learn them both. Thus Canadians are measurement bi-lingual and have no problem operating any where in the world.

I find myself the essential go between in tons of dealings with non-US suppliers.

And I expect as older Canadians depart for that great hockey arena in the sky, metric will become more and more into daily use.

pappy12a

Metric is used by every major country except the US

If we want to trade (We need to) with the rest of the world we'd better be on the same system as them

Jake

it's good to know both systems

Alphabetty

not really units of measure are more or less abstract concepts so if you grow up understanding height in feet and weight in pounds it makes total sense to you . . .it's like the color red you grow up calling it red but if you grew up in a place where people called it Hoguu it would still be just as red, and it would make as much sense to you. It's only confusing when you go to another country and everyone there is calling it red.

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