Toaris

I presume because of the French influence, that metric measurements are pretty much standard in Canada. However, I suspect Canada still has a mix of the two considering America (the eternal 'imperial guardian' ) is its neighbour.

Can anybody confirm what the real situation is please? Do we have a half-way house system like in the UK or have the Canadians bitten the bullet and sorted itself out.

Gareth

Souvenir

It's far from sorted out.

Pretty much anything to with building/decorating is imperial. Food is mainly metric (but often just converted from imperial, eg butter). Beer and wine bought in stores are metric. In a pub you would ask for a pint (the measures are in fluid ounces). Hard liquor is imperial. My height and weight can be given in either. Gasoline is metric, as are distances and speeds. The use of horsepower, BTUs etc is common. I could go on.

Purley

Yes, even my sons, who are in their 30s and grew up with metric - they talk about feet and inches. The only thing that isn't both is the weather. Although I refer to weather in celcius, I have to admit that when its really hot - I will say it feels like 90 degrees out. I can never remember what "hot" is in celcius!

I hear people asking for half a pound of salami - so I am not the only one who doesn't like metric. It was forced on us by Trudeau who said we would be in accord with the rest of the world or some such crap. This is extremely "useful" seeing the US does not use metric at all and they are our major trading partner!!

dbd33

I don't use metric at all. I write 5' 10" as my height for everything, on the one occassion when some government employee insisted on metric I translated it as 145 metres and she went way happy.

As a rule, government uses metric, people use imperial, so shop prices are shown in pounds but a dual scale is used and the inspector inspects the side in pascals or joules or whatever.

French Canadians, btw, use imperial for lots of things. Houses and flats, for example, are always measured in pc. Speaking French doesn't have to mean being unable to communicate.

deangb

[QUOTE=dbd33], on the one occassion when some government employee insisted on metric I translated it as 145 metres and she went way happy.


OMG!!! 145 metres, no wonder she was happy she had just discovered a bloody giant!

hawkeye

5' 10" = 1.78m 1.45m = 4' 7" 145m = 475' 7"

hot wasabi peas

Like other people have pointed out, it's all mixed up.

Add on to this various cultural interpretations of what makes up a measurement. For instance, 'a cup' of something can have different meanings. Getting a cup of say pickled ginger from a Japanese supermarket isn't the same as an imperial cup which is about 250 ml. A Japanese cup is only 200 ml. And there are many other examples like that. Guesstimating is pretty much the standard.

dbd

It was for a security badge to work at a federal government office. I wore it for about eighteen months without anyone noticing, I'm sure if it had said 4' 7" someone would have seen it was wrong but Canadians just don't know metric, except perhaps, for temperature.

Even temperature is iffy, yesterday we heard a metric weather forecast for today, low 8 high 28, that sounded quite a range so I asked Ms. Passenger (23 years old, educated in French in Canada) if it sounded right to her. She said "8 is mid-forties, right ? It's about 60 now so that's wrong, but they're always wrong, why do you even listen ?". The odd thing with temperature is that the kids seem to feel it in a different scale according to the language they're using, they don't really translate to degrees F for English and degrees C for French but know hot and cold in numbers according to the language they're using at that moment. It was 65 on the funeral parlour neon sign at 7 this morning so the forecast was as valuable as usual.

Meanwhile, the neighbours are building a new house and I'm in dispute with them about the placement of the house. This has involved much phoning of lawyers and inspectors and explanation of regulations, the only reference to metric was when we looked at a plan for our lot which has one measurement (just one!) in metric; there was an argument about whether it was cm or mm which was resolved by interpreting it as a foot (the law allows 4' for whatever that was about).

Canada's not like Australia, people there seem to have embraced metric. Here it's really just a nuisance as Americans don't use it, so long as they don't (forever I hope) Canadians need to know imperial measures and having a second system is just perverse. Trudeauan, one might say.

Souvenir

It's a funny thing when it comes to temperatures. I've only very recently become properly comfortable with degrees C across the board. In the past I could "picture" cold only in degrees C and hot in degrees F.

On the subject of which, what on earth is going on? It's October. I didn't expect to see the word "humidex" on the forecast this morning. I'm not complaining, mind you.

dbd

Mmmm, yes, below freezing I understand degrees C whereas above only F means anything to me.

Perhaps it's that "global warming" we're always being promised.

How was AZ ?

Souvenir

Hot and expensive. Nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. Enormously friendly and courteous people, I thought. Probably because of the tourism.

United/Ted managed to not transfer my case in Chicago, with the result that I spent 12 hours in Phoenix walking around in the clothes I had put on in Gatineau. Levis and 40C+ do not mix well.

My, but those Homeland Security people are thorough!

It was very pleasing to find that the sunglasses Christiane had accidentally left in plain view on top of the car in Ottawa on Saturday were still there on Wednesday.

Purley

I agree with what you say about metric. If it says we are getting 9 cm of snow - I don't know whether its running shoes or snowboots time! Seriously, I have absolutely no idea.

Souvenir

Oh, come on dear! 9cm is sod all. It's more of a bikini vs one-piece decision.

dozzzzy

Personally I'd just go with the bottoms

Dozzzzy

Souvenir

Each to his own.

Oakville probably has a by-law about that sort of thing.