Imperial and
Metric Measurement System in Canada
(Draft 3rd, probably final, after
2nd correction)
I would tell one confusing story which happened to me
recently.
One day my husband and I were going to the nearest town for
groceries when our neighbour asked to buy for him “two quarts of half and half
cream”. As my husband and I came from Europe, where we both used metric
measurement system (he is from Germany and I am from Ukraine), we guessed that
one quart is 250ml, or ¼ litre. So we bought two 237ml packs of half and half
cream. But what a surprise when we came back home and our neighbour came to
pick up his goods. According to the imperial measurement system one quart is
0.9463 litres which is more than ¼ (one quarter) litre in the metric system. It
is not hard to guess that our calculations were wrong and instead of two quarts
we bought two quarter-litres.
After this strange situation, I asked myself why it
happened, why there was a misunderstanding. So I went to my “best friend”, the
internet, and found the answer to my questions. According to my search, only
three countries in the world, namely USA, Liberia, and Burma, still officially
use the archaic imperial system of weights and measures. But what about Canada?
Canada adopted and has officially used the metric system since 1970s, but
imperial measurements are often used as well. Also Wikipedia says: “The use of
metric or imperial measurement varies by age and region. Older Canadians are
sometimes more familiar with the imperial measurement, whereas younger
Canadians are more familiar with metric. And many provinces and territories in
Canada include the imperial system of measurement as a part of their school
education.”
I am sure many immigrants have often had similar confusing
situations to mine, in grocery stores, hardware stores, clothing shops, medical
clinics, etc. In my opinion a better way to avoid similar situations as this is
for the government to make a strict policy to have just one measurement system in
Canada. Why should we make our lives more difficult if we can make them easier!
