Think Metric? Think Twice

Canada is a metric country, more or less. It went metric in the 1970’s under the Liberal government (beginning with Pierre Trudeau), but in the 80’s, when the Conservatives came in with Brian Mulroney presiding as Prime Minister, the drive for metrification kind of fell by the wayside. This was because the Conservatives had never been big supporters of shifting to metric measurements. They were, I suppose, conservative in their orientation: as in don’t change things. As a result of this, Canada has a system that provides its citizens with endless opportunities to be bi-counters, as it were (something like being bilingual which, in the western provinces, they definitely are not).

When you cross the border into Canada down at Peace Arch, the main U.S. tourist crossing in these parts, there is a sign that says something like “Remember: 50K is 30 mph.” This doesn’t strike me as a particularly useful way to inform drivers, but signage in Canada, for the most part, seems to me to be designed by people who are pretty much convinced that people don’t pay much attention to signs so it doesn’t really matter what you put on them. 50K is a speed sign that an American driver will frequently run across (it’s the basic rule on 2-lane streets not near schools), but so is 90K and 25K and 40K, so I don’t know what the Americans are supposed to do when they see those signs. Remember that 50K is 30 mph, so 90K is more, but not twice as much, or probably not. Might have been better to say “50 kph x .6=30 mph” because that multiplying by .6 is what you really need to know.

Canada didn’t actually start with exactly the same measuring system as the U.S. in the days when they were definitely not metric. They used British Imperial measures, in which you have an imperial gallon (that is 4.5 liters), as opposed to the U.S. gallon (which is 3.8 liters). So metrification at least got rid of that confusion along a border where gasoline was priced per gallon, but, the closer you came to the border, the less sure you were about what size gallon you might be buying. Now, it’s clear because the gas stations don’t sell by the gallon; they sell only by the litre and I’ve never seen one that priced it any other way.

By contrast, the supermarket has settled into an interesting midpoint in which all the scales in the produce department weigh in metrics, but everything is priced, by sign, in per pound prices (although they also usually include a per kilo price as well in smaller letters, but your receipt will give the price only in kilos). Butter is sold in packages of 454 grams, which seems an odd measure (as opposed to 500 grams), but that is because 454 grams is a U.S. pound, and, well, you know how cows are about change. Houses for sale are usually advertised as having X square feet, not X square meters. I can't even imagine what a 2,000 sq. foot house would be in square meters: a square meter is 1600 square inches, and a square foot is 144 square inches, so I expect those houses aren't going to have a whole lot of square meters in them.

Since I spend a lot of time in quilting stores, I can testify to the fact that some sell by the meter (40 inches for Americans), whereas others sell by the yard (36 inches, of course). I no longer even try to figure out whether something that is $18/yard is cheaper than, more expensive than,or exactly the same price as something that I can also buy for $20/meter. Of course those are Canadian dollars that the pricing is offered in, so if you are comparing to American prices, there’s that difference also to be taken into consideration. The fact that U.S. and Canadian dollars are pretty much equal the last few months has actually simplified my life a bit, even if it has significantly reduced the balance in my Canadian dollar checking account.

It seems a profoundly confusing way to do things, neither in nor out of metric measure, as opposed to the U.S. approach. The U.S. is a country that really knows how to Just Say No! But maybe this mixed approach is being pushed by the Canadian healthcare system in an attempt to prevent Alzheimer’s by keeping Canada’s citizens doing math all the time. Use It or Lose It, as they are always telling me.