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For Good Measure: Canada Converts to Metric
Depending on your perspective, it was either a sensible scientific shift, an annoying unnecessary change or a sinister communist plot. Canada's decision to go metric in 1970 definitely sparked some passionate debates. It even drove some Canadians to civil disobedience. CBC Archives explores the history of Canada's gradual and sometimes shaky transition to the metric system — a transition that, to this day, has yet to be fully completed.

	Metric: inspired by revolution		Why metric makes sense		The metric housewife
	Thanks to the French Revolution, a new measurement system was born. (Radio; runs 7:54)		In 1963, a Toronto engineering professor says Canada should go metric. (Radio; runs 9:16)		Canada has just announced its official plans for going metric, and CBC's Matinee ponders what this means for Canadian homemakers. (Radio; runs 7:13)

	An irreversible process		Is metric a communist plot?		'The great Canadian metric debate'
	While Canada has already begun metrication, the U.S. is dragging its heels. Will this affect Canada's transition? (Radio; runs 9:33)		An American metric critic is waging a war against metric on political grounds. (Radio; runs 4:12)		90 Minutes Live features a light-hearted discussion on the pros and cons of going metric. (TV; runs 9:42)

	Fired for opposing metric		Full-scale metric rebellion		MPs moonlight as gas jockeys
	Front Page Challenge talks to a former civil servant who lost his job for speaking out against the metric system. (TV; runs 10:10)		Many Canadians are angry about mandatory metric, and say they aren't going to take it anymore. (TV; runs 9:53)		To protest mandatory metric, 37 Conservative MPs have opened up a gas station offering gasoline in gallons. (Radio; runs 8:44)

	Knowing more than mom and dad		A Canadian compromise
	When it comes to metric, school children are better educated than their parents in 1983. (Radio; runs 4:03)		With the government's new 1985 metrication policy, metric remains mandatory while imperial is tolerated for certain industries. (TV; runs 4:04)

LINKS Topic from Les Archives de Radio-Canada on the same subject Mètres chez nous, le Canada change de règles External sites One Metre: Canada's metric website since 1998 (not a government site) U.S. Metric Association The CBC assumes no responsibility for the content of external links.

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