Jim McCracken asked in USMA 11900: >The Metric Program has received a letter from a Canadian from Victoria, BC. >She is obviously distressed by the United States' continued use of >non-metric measures She says, "Knowing the difficulty we have to get the >mention of /lb prices eliminated from the retail food stores, after 20 >years of metric scales, I hope the US will not perpetuate the agony by >allowing dual pricing. It will not teach anyone anything!!!" It is always >heartening to hear from pro-metric Canadians. > >However, she has an disheartening comment about the Canadian government >that I like to corroborate. She say, "The Canadian government often states, >as reason for not completing the move to Metric SI, the fact that 'our most >important trading partner' (US) might not accept or understand if we export >goods to the US in 'metric only' weight or measures." > >Is this a recurring "explanation" given by the Federal government and/or >Provincial governments in Canada when Canadian citizens question the delay >in completing the country's transition to the metric system?? > >Jim McCracken >NIST Metric Program That is an excuse given by Conservative governments. The Consevatives have been "neutral against" metricatioin. In November 1973 the Liberal government suspended the regulation that would have required metric only pricing from 1974 because there was a case before the courts about selling gasoline by the litre only. The court's decision a year later was in favor of the government, but by that time the Conservatives were in power. They promised several times to reinstate the metric regulations, but they never did. The Liberals returned to power in 1993, but the international traveller Pierre Trudeau was no longer the Liberal leader and the present Liberal government evidently can see no net gain of popular votes by restoring the metric regulations. Joseph B. Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071
