Measuring Change

Though detractors insisted Canada could not move forward without American implementation of metric or asked why change something people were familiar with, promoters worried Canadians would be left behind globally. “Canada seems to be asleep,” Leslie (L.E.) Howlett, a National Research Council director and the president of the International Committee for Weights and Measures, observed in 1966. “People are talking about it at times, but nothing is happening.”

Metric advocates closely watched the United Kingdom’s conversion progress, which began in the early 1960s and was scheduled for completion by 1975. Also monitored were major American manufacturers, such as the Ford Motor Company, which studied the effects of metric conversion even though the United States remained the world’s major holdout.

Among the first Canadian adopters, meanwhile, were hospitals, starting with Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children in the mid-1960s. Administrators and hospital associations across the country promoted metric for many reasons, including its widespread scientific use and more precise drug measurements, particularly for younger patients. By 1969, more than 200 hospitals, mostly in Ontario, had switched over. When Calgary’s Foothills Hospital (now Foothills Medical Centre) converted that year, its administrators also cited metric’s use in professional journals, its familiarity among immigrants and new employees, and its increasing presence in commercial and industrial settings. To bring employees up to speed, the hospital offered six weeks of metric-orientation sessions.

Believing metric to be inevitable and desirable, the Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce issued the white paper on metric conversion in Canada in January 1970 to propose a general policy for conversion. The report warned that North America might remain “an inch-pound island in an otherwise metric world — a position which would be in conflict with Canadian industrial and trade interests and commercial policy objectives.” The report also suggested that many adults did not have or forgot the math needed to calculate existing units and that metric would be easier to learn and use.

Though it recognized that full adaptation hinged on American actions, the report concluded that our southern neighbour shouldn’t slow the process. The authors believed that most sectors of Canadian life would have few problems converting as long as the transition was carefully phased in.

The white paper inspired two pieces of legislation that passed in 1971: an amendment to the Weights and Measures Act recognizing the use of metric in Canada; and the Consumer Packaging and Labelling Act, which required metric measurements on most product labels. It also inspired the creation of a preparatory agency that evolved into the Metric Commission. Chaired by former Canadian Pacific Railway executive Stevenson Gossage, it oversaw more than 100 sector committees that monitored and prepared conversion plans for a wide range of interests and industries. There were problems figuring out which sectors should convert fully and which, especially industries reliant on American materials, should take it slowly. The commission dodged questions about the conversion costs, waving them away with a promise that the long-term economic benefits outweighed the price tag.

Commissioners believed the process must be gradual and fun — not frightening — for easier public acceptance. Government agencies and major corporations borrowed ideas from the British, such as promotional posters displaying bikini-clad models whose body measurements were provided in both systems. Pulp-and-paper industry giant Domtar Fine Papers Ltd., for example, issued posters featuring “Buffy, the Metric Miss” in 1973 to start public conversations about the problems surrounding conversion. Graphics produced by the commission for newspaper ads and articles about temperature conversions indicated that 30°C was an “ideal day for a swim” while -20°C was “so cold the snow squeaks.”

Commissioners believed the process must be gradual and fun — not frightening — for easier public acceptance.

As the guidelines around teaching metric were developed, individual schools took creative approaches. At West Humber Junior School in Etobicoke, Ont., principal Fred Willson turned an unused classroom into a space students named “Metric Mansion.” They sang songs about metric (including a version of “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” which declared “the metric system puts you far ahead”), played games and learned to use tools like metric rulers. The students were convinced to “think metric” instead of learning how to convert from the old measurements.

Despite the encouragement of home economists, people vowed to hang on to their old measuring cups and spoons.

Weather offices also dealt with angry or confused calls from the public. “Canadians value their weather information,” Nancy Cutler, metric conversion coordinator for the Atmospheric Environment Service, recalled in a 2015 Toronto Star interview, “and when you start tampering with it, you’re tampering with something very close to their hearts.”

While many living close to the border increasingly relied on American stations to provide temperatures in Fahrenheit, Canadians generally adapted quickly to Celsius and, from the fall of 1975, measuring precipitation in metric.

The metric rollout continued for the rest of the decade. Road signs switched to kilometres for speed and distance in December 1977, while gas stations dropped gallons for litres in January 1979. The conversion of grocery store weigh scales became a political football, with cutoff dates continually pushed off until, in December 1983, stores could only sell items in grams and kilograms.

During the early 1980s, debates over metric turned partisan, with Liberals for mandatory conversions and Progressive Conservatives against. An anti-metric petition created by the Toronto Sun gathered tens of thousands of signatures. Progressive Conservative MPs brought several anti-metric petitions into the House of Commons in April 1982, including a 135,000-name one that was 5.6 kilometres long and weighed 112 kilograms. Anti-metric groups with names such as Measure Canada and HUMBUG (Help Undo Metrication, Bug your MP) formed. Fields such as real estate continued to hold out. In 1985, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s government relaxed restrictions on using the old measurements in areas from food scales in small businesses to home furnishings — as long as metric was also used. His government also dissolved the Metric Commission.

In the long run, not all Canadians embraced the “beautiful logic inherent in the metric system” that the 1974 guidebook “Canada Goes Metric” gushed about. The current federal government acknowledges that some Canadians are more comfortable with the old measurements and allows both to be used. Celsius is the standard for weather, but we still use Fahrenheit to cook. Eyebrows twitch when people are asked for their height in centimetres instead of feet and inches. Outsiders may be confused by our refusal to stick to one system or another, but nobody is rushing to change the temperature.