When I was a kid, in the 1960's. Daddy Trudeau (Pierre Elliot Trudeau "PET" the fairly ugly father to the prettiest head of state, Justin Trudeau) brought in Metric. While Justin Trudeau will never be accused of being as smart as his father - I still have no idea what the real motivation of PET was to trying unsuccessfully, and economically disastrously metrificating partially Canada. OK, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, he probably really did believe the USA's claims that they were going to metric over the next decade.

I was a 9 year old boy at the time, grade 3. We were told: The USA is committed to going Metric in the next 10 years, so Canada is going to do it faster to make sure we don't get left behind.

10 years later, when Canada had given up trying to change anymore, the US said "Psych!, fooled you." and they stayed using English measurements despite the huge Spanish population in their country. 5 years after that, we 'legally' mostly gave up, our biggest accomplishment was to have all the safety and other standards converted to ONLY Metric so that we could lower our safety while paying the safety industry a lot of money to enforce the confusion. (Details below. Anyone who is involved in setting safety standards that tells you they care about safety is proven to be a liar by their results that can't be understood at a quick gut level by the majority of Canadians - and it CAN be so they prove they don't care about safety as much as they care about Liberal and Woke political correctness.)

Canada, ruled by the French often, had more or less, made the change. Officially "We" didn't want a stupid "English" system even though the English (in England) themselves had, well at least at a government level, switched to Metric. (2022 I hear they may be giving up and going back though.)

So let me update this page with a look at where we are after 50 years (2020) in consultation with my 7 and 8 year old's and my 30s children: You may find some of my comments sarcastic, but look at them carefully, you'll see the sarcasm is actually the real truth in most cases, even if it isn't the current politically correct truth. I do need to mention that my perceptions are from the 2/3rds of the country that are English. I suspect - in fact I know - that some of these are not correct for the French part of the country based on French friends, but I don't have the details so all I really know as fact is that they even write their numbers differently than we do. 100 000,00 instead of 100,000.00 for example.

Vehicles and driving

When we record it for taxes, or fuel economy, we talk about "mileage" and then like the compliant sheep we are, write down 16km.
Acceleration is "0-60 in x seconds" where 60 is MPH.
We are mostly metric. We buy gas in litres (this way the cost of Trudeau Senior and Junior's carbon taxes are not as noticeable. There would have been an overthrowing of the government if we were still using Imperial gallons.)
We drive short distances in kilometres and metres (a city block is about 100 meters, because for some reason, pure luck I assume, the standard was 16 blocks to a mile … which conveniently translates to 100 metres per block), I did some more research in 2021 because this question intrigued me. It turns out that a 'standard' acre is 1 furlong by 1 chain (660' x 66') and as everyone knows ;) there are 80 chains in a mile, if you divide that by 5 chains, you get 16. If you use 5 chains per block it is a reasonable length, 4 feels too short and 6 feels too long for a normal average. So - because 5 chains is a reasonable length, 16 blocks in a mile is a common, convenient length. So 100 metres to a block is not a government plot from centuries ago, just a lucky coincidence for google maps.
We drive medium distances in miles, half the country has rural roads in a 1 mile by 2 mile grid and even the Liberal power doesn't have enough to change all of them.
We drive long distances in Kilometres because, well, all the signs are in kilometres.
We control our speed in Kilometres - well, those that try to obey the law do anyway. Ever drive on the 401 in Toronto? I think they still drive in miles even though the signs are in kilometres, that lets them drive 1.6x's faster without a guilty conscience, but I admit it has been more than a decade since I've been deeper into Toronto than transiting through the airport so maybe it changed. But when I was last there, I was passed by cement mixers because I was "only" going 140km in a 100km zone - I went that fast because it meant, at 140km, I didn't pass a single person, but there were a few people going almost as slow as me.
We spell metres the French way not the English way "meters" because that 1/3rd of the country REALLY forces us to be French as much as possible. Some say it is the British influence - but of course the British spelling was also because of the French.
But we measure fuel in miles per gallon (though I have NO idea whether it is imperial gallons we used to use or the smaller US gallons that of course all the American ads list THEIR MPG in.) Why? Because the metric litres per hundred km's becomes less and less useful the more fuel efficient our cars get while MPG becomes more and more significant. So MPG is a much more useful number for humans to think in than litres per 100 km's - even though litres per 100km's is a much more useful number when you are trying to get from point A to point B and want to know if you are going to run out of gas. Of course Trudeau Jr is hoping to entirely get rid of this by buying lots of Lithium from the Chinese so we can talk about how many kWh per mile it takes to drive. (We don't use the metric megajoules in Canada, we use kilowatt hours)

Safety:

We do everything related to Safety in Metric because we REALLY don't care if construction workers get killed or if houses fall down. I find it hilarious (sarcasm just so you don’t' miss it, I actually think it is appalling and unforgivable) that 'they' say all the rules are about safety and then write all the rules with metric ONLY - showing clearly that following the French Liberal agenda in our country is STILL far more important that the safety of buildings and workers. Maybe the goal was to kill of the stupid and non-compliant? Or maybe the goal was to kill all the non-French people (assuming French Canadians use and understand Metric, I don't actually know) Like Europe does with their 220V for children to play with. A friend, Rolf, there tells me, this is how they help evolution, by killing off all the dumb and non-compliant children. Unlike Canada and the US that use 110V, thereby encouraging those people to live.
Real story: I was building a house. The inspector looked at my floor, the nails where hard to see. He said "Code says the nails have to be no more than 10 cm apart that's ah, um, well as long as you have them about every 6" you'll be OK. I had them every 3 to 3.5" apart so I met code AND the inspector's rule. But notice that he assumed I wouldn't understand the metric AND for those not bi-measural, he told me it was OK if I had them every about 15.24cm when code said they couldn't be more than 10cm apart. I politely told him "10cm is actually just under 4", and I have them every 3 to 3 and a half inches." He muttered something about idiot code writers not writing so that people could understand, and thanked me for doing it correctly.
So what would the solution be? Well, let's start by acknowledging that a very small percentage of people in Canada really DO think in metric at the gut level. What would be wrong with having the code give both measurements "Nails must be no more than 10cm (4") apart"? If you REALLY care about that extra 0.16, then say "no more than 10.16cm (4") apart"

Temperature, outside, Inside:

We are bilingual, or as I heard as a joke in 2021 "bi-measural". In Canada we say "we are bi-lingual" referring to knowing both Metric and English, and as a nod, or possibly insult, to the fact that a many people out in my part of the country are bi-lingual meaning English-Spanish, er I mean English-Mandarin, er English-German. What's that? Oh, I'm told it is actually because on the East side of the country some people speak English-French. Oh, now I'm being told "And for people who want to work for the Federal government they have to be English-French even in the 2/3rds of the country where Spanish is more prevalent than French." and a high level manager at CBC told me "But it is the official Canadian French, not Quebecois"
Anyway … we are mostly Metric on this one, 0 is freezing, 100 is boiling, 20 is room temperature, 30 to 40 is really hot, I bike down to -5 with shorts, and -20 is when you have to stop wearing shorts and put on long pants, -40 and -60 are really cold. (I used to bike down to -6 in shorts, but found out I was too close to the line the hard way.)
We know SOME of those numbers in the Fahrenheit scale - but we can't spell Farenheight, or it is Ferenheight? No, Farhenhiet? Farenheit? Arggh, Bing help please? Ah yes: Fahrenheit, and my best guess is that is why Celsius has won - it is easier to spell Celsius than Fahrenheit, with Celsius the only question for spelling is: Is it a c or an s after the l? Compare that to: 32F is Freezing, 68 is room temperature, 212 is boiling when you are in Vancouver and anything between 80 and 120 is really hot and of course the one that every knows -40C/F or below doesn't need to have a C or F because it is the same - really cold.
Interesting side note, I hear there are several theories for why water freezes at 32F, they are essentially all silly. Apparently 0F was set based on the temperature at which a mixture of ammonium chloride, water and ice!! freeze at; why isn't it just a mixture of ammonium chloride and water or just water? and body temperature of a human being incorrectly thought to be 100F and because that gave a very convenient (!?!) difference between freezing water and boiling water (at sea level and blah blah) of 180 - because apparently in the Dutch Republic, dividing by 180 was convenient? I admit, for temperature … I like the Celsius scale and I'm glad it changed early enough that I 'think' in Celsius and 'translate' to F. I just have to remember it is an S or a C after the Cel, argggh, forgot again, I'll just say 30C and not spell it out either.

Temperature, cooking:

Despite not knowing how to spell it, because all the cookbooks in paper and most on the internet say F - we cook in Ferenheight er I mean Fahrenheit.

Temperature, Swimming pools:

Is it government? If yes, then use C, otherwise F unless it is a hot tub, then maybe you'll switch back to C

Other weather:

Rain is measured in the news in millimetres, and then I heard last week the weather woman say "26mm of rain - WOW that's almost an inch"; noting of course that it is MORE than an inch? But close enough, who cares, the key point is that, people in their 50's always first translate millimetres into inches so they can tell how much that REALLY is. In talking to younger people (in their 30's) it turns out - they have no idea either way. They don't know what 20mm is AND they don't know what 1" is either. I taught my young children: An inch is about the width of an adult male thumb and a cm is the width of an adult baby finger - close enough for estimating, and a yard and a metre are the same thing - a large adult step - everyone should learn how to step with their body "about" a yard for measuring. (yes I know 3-4" difference one way or the other - no I don't usually care.) But notice clearly: The weather person says "wow that's almost an inch" showing that THEY understand that not a single non-Liberal government lackey in their audience knows what x mm's is. We all think in inches of rain not Trudeau's woke system.

Building

If you are building or maintaining a Federal building, you use extremely expensive metric materials that are manufactured for you one board at a time or shipped from Europe. And then, if you are maintaining a 50 year or older federal building, you have to cut everything down to some sort of English size and throw 45% of the product away because it was "just" 1" too small so you couldn't use it properly.
The rest of the country has, is and will continue to build in English. A 4x8 sheet of plywood is 4' by 8'.
I suspect it will be another 2 or 3 centuries before this changes - if even then. Why? Because of inertia. The COST to change to metric is abhorrent, and all the old buildings have to be maintained in in English, so most building materials are English (or use really weird metric numbers with 2 decimals of accuracy so they are EXACTLY x" in length)and as a result, all new buildings (except federal government buildings) are built in feet and inches, solidifying the reality that government has failed to be able to change.
Noting the huge environmental damage that would be caused if we switched to Metric for building, and for what: So that the Trudeaus can claim victory?
16", 19.2", 24", 4', 8' - those are just way too important numbers in construction to switch to metric.
For a giggle, do a Bing or Google etc.., search for "Size of metric plywood in Canada" … it'll give you the dimensions in … wait for it … feet and inches! But now say "Europe" instead of "Canada" and … you'll get it in cm's. See - even Google and Bing know that the Trudeau government failed. Now, it used to be that the metric sheets were too narrow and too short (or was it too short and too wide?) But now that has been 'fixed', in 2021 the metric sheets are a 1/3" wider and a 1/2" longer than what are used in 99.99% of construction in Canada. Technically 0.315" and 0.63" too big. This has these results:
Neither board size fits Federal building built before the 70's
Current boards do NOT fit in Federal "metric" buildings built in the 1970's - because THEY were sized to the OLD metric sizes. Fortunately, at only 40% higher cost per square inch (er per square cm), you can buy sheets that are 1200x2400 - 3/4" too narrow and 1.5" too short so they will fit the 1970's style Federal buildings. To be honest, I have no idea whether modern Federal buildings are built to the 1200x2400 (too small) or 1220x2440 size (too big) or some other random "metric" size.
They require you make TWO cuts on every board before installing them anywhere else, to get rid of that extra 1/3" and 1/2" - otherwise they won't fit standard locations. So you pay a whole lot more for these sheets that no one uses, and you have to spend time and saw blades to make them fit.
And heaven help you if you are required by contract by the Federal government to buy 1200x2400 sheets and fit them into a building designed to 1220x2440 dimensions! Wood glue?
I thought there was also a standard metric sheet in the 1970's that was too much in one dimension and too little in another, but it looks like my memory is incorrect. Doesn't matter - metric sheets are a horrible waste of time, money and effort regardless of the various reasons.
The Liberal can proudly point and show how metric works: It means they need more taxes, and the more taxes, the more successful Liberal governments are, right? And somehow, the Liberal Prime Minister thought this was a good, environmentally friendly solution? Windows are sold in cm - but almost always cm that match exact inches, so you can easily buy a window that is 30.48cm by 60.96cm (12"x24") but I have NEVER seen a window that is specified in nice round numbers like 30x60cm - that would be such a hard size to work with in real construction! But to meet the legal rules Trudeau foisted upon them, they diligently convert all measurements in the more 'convenient' Metric 20.48x60.96 format. So you metric idiots can whine all you want about metric being "easier"… we know the truth, 30.48 cm is NOT easier to work with.

Land, our country is mostly divided up into Townships which have 36 sections, a "section" (a mile by a mile) with roads in many places in a 1mile by 2mile grid. Sections are divided into quarter sections. Quarter sections are divided into acres and "first 10 out" means 10 acres not 10 hectares. Hectares? What the Hec would we use a Hectare for. We'd have to remap the whole country and move roads to make it efficient, we'd have to take all our broad roads and make them narrow like English to fit the hectares in. We will always be looking at land in acres even if some pushy bureaucrat tries to force us to express things in hectare for some stupid political agenda. Oh and while we are at it … a square acre is, after average adjustments, about 208'x208' - not it isn't convenient, but NO one (sorry I forgot about those Liberal bureaucrats) is going to express it as 63.3984m by 63.3984 or with more adjustments - after all, if you are going to use Metric, you deserve to lose even more land: 63x63m. Oh and lest you put too fine a point on it - a section etc.., is an APPROXIMATE value because the earth is more or less spheroid (yes I know it is squished so it is more or less - but not perfectly - an oblate spheroid) and so there are 'correction' lines as needed, and the further North or South you go from the Equator, the more frequent you need these correction lines and the less square your square really is.

In government documents I've seen they refer to a section as "64.7497 hectares more or less". What makes this funny is the combination of the translation from "160 Acres more or less" and the inclusion of the "more or less" due to the earth not being flat and other factors. So they acknowledge the flat earther's are wrong by having the "more or less" - but WHY on EARTH do they use 4 decimals of accuracy for something that might be off by an acre or two? Why not translate 160 acres more or less to 65 hectares more or less? Why the precision of 11 square feet for something that can easily be off by 80,000 square feet (the more or less part) and routinely off by 20,000 square feet? (I'll bet they'll translate that last to 0.185806 hectares - missing the whole point of using a number like 20K. But government has never show itself to understand the difference between accuracy and precision. Check out how many trees Justin Trudeau in 2022 has promised to plant - we don't have enough arable country to plant what he is promising! - but they never let science or math get in the way of Liberal "the science". Of course, on the tree count thing, the Liberals were off by 2 or 3 or more magnitudes of order! - so they were not in any way precise OR accurate, they were just trying to compete with the NDP.)

Buying groceries

Cans, mostly metric. I'm not sure why, I don't even have a sarcastic (but true) reason. Probably because 454ml sounds more impressive than the larger 16oz can they replaced for higher price. But if you go to buy produce or meat etc.., it is all in lbs. Biggest reason? I suspect because pricing in KG means it costs more than twice as much and just looks bad. They do, to keep Trudeau from suing them, also have KG prices in tiny print. - Hey, someone from Quebec let me know: Does the Quebec government force ONLY KG just like they force only French? I'm assuming 'yes' since "pounds" are English but KG are, well French-ish, and you know, the French Revolution and Metric. If someone trustworthy from Quebec tells me, I'll update this page.

Cooking

Exclusively English (lbs, cups, TSP's, Fahrenheit ovens.) Why? Cook books and the Internet are mostly English. I suspect French people cook in KG and litres and Celsius - because I assume French cooking sites are metric.) Having said that, I admit, I routinely use 250ml of water for my tea instead of 1 cup, I have no idea why.

3D printing

Mostly metric, because it is a VERY convenient system when measuring something with calipers and then trying to recreate and/or resize. I really like using the Metric system in this very specific environment.
There is a suggestion though, that with Prusa slicer adding English measurements in 2021 that there may be a shift to English measurements as more and more people get into the sport. I'll stick to Metric here, except when the source data is English.

Sports

English. Pointy Football fields are in yards, not meters, the height of basketball players is feet and inches (I'm told from my staff around the world that sports are mostly English measurements 'there' too.)
Swimming pools: If government, C, if personal, F, except many hot tubs are C because 40 is more convenient than 104.
If you are running, you do a 100 yard dash, unless your coach or school have the Olympics in mind, in which case they push you an extra 300 inches (9.36 extra yards.) Is this possibly why Athletes in Canada always sound like they failed math class "Giving it one hundred and ten percent". Maybe they are not as stupid as they appear. If they have to run 10% further to make the Liberals happy - then they are giving 110%.
Player specs are in Imperial. Btw … to be clear, the Olympics is a political event, a political statement, not sport. That is why they use Metric.

Personal/Medical measurements:

If you are overweight, you measure in Kilograms, if you are a good weight you measure in lbs. just kidding, almost everyone uses lbs for tracking their weight. I am, unfortunately, at time of writing, a fairly hefty 265lbs. I REALLY like to travel to computer conferences in the USA - because then, looking around, I feel like I am light weight, not obese.
Height is in feet and inches
Unless you go to the doctor's office, then suddenly you are in kilograms and centimeters. Makes sense - it is easier to figure out drug doses using a decimal system than a fractional system. This claim was written several years ago, see the update.
Update: I've noticed that in Doctor's offices, circa 2021, they now automatically tell me my and my kid's weight in lbs and height in feet + inches. I asked two nurses, in 2 different offices in 2 cities (Airdrie and Calgary) WHY the change, they said they realized that nobody had a clue what it meant when they reported in metric and they decided that if they were actually going to help people they needed to speak the language the people understood, so they stopped using kg and cm and switched to the language of the people, as for as the "easier to dose in Metric" turns out that had ZERO value - because they always use a computer to calculate the dose, to avoid human error. So metric was CAUSING human error, and where, for a human metric was 'easier' they refused to trust the human in any event. Unlike the safety industry in Canada, it looks like the medical industry might actually really care about people.
In the Calgary office I noticed they even reported to the Doctor in lbs and feet/inches - I commented and he replied: Metric is silly, even doctors don't think that way, and the charts for medicines work just fine in lbs. We chatted a bit more and he said "Those Ontario Liberals probably think in Metric, but out here - we think like our patients." The Airdrie one might have done the same, I didn't see what the language (system) nurse wrote it down there. I probably should have pointed out to him that in Toronto, they drive as though the posted speed limits were MPH - so it isn't the average person down there that thinks that way, just Trudeau Junior's buddies.
When you go to the hairdresser, saying "Take a cm off" is 2.54x's as expensive as saying "Take an inch off" because you have to come back 2.54x's as often.

○ I guess that is why, as far as I have heard, people telling their hair dressers how much to cut off always use inches.

○ Besides - if you tell your hair dresser "take of 3 cm" they won't have a clue what that means and so, unless they are willing to look stupid, they'll just guess and cut off however much they think makes sense and hope that it is close to what you asked for in that foreign language.

○ But if you tell them 3 cm - maybe you'll get between 7 and 8" cut off (Isn't a cm 2.54x's bigger than an inch?) not the 1 1/4" you meant to ask for, heck, you PROBABLY rounded up to 3cm because the last time when you tried to sound intelligent and asked them to take off 2.54cm, you got the hair dresser who quit medical school … and they took 2 1/2" off.

○ Noting that I am assuming if you use a stupid number like 2.54" when talking to a hairdresser a) you are one of the small percentage that know what you are taking about and b) You realize you are being funny, and you actually don't care how much they take off - because you understand they don't understand and therefore it is unlikely you will get what you asked for and you know that that level of precision is ridiculous when it comes to getting a hair cut.

○ In any event - make sure you give them a good tip if you act like a jerk and ask using Metric. They deserve a good tip for putting up with you regardless of how much they ended up taking off.

So how successful was Trudeau's "Let's make Canada Metric"? It was a complete and utter failure. It essentially has no benefits the way it was done and it causes safety errors. That is the legacy of Trudeau senior. The jury is out on sick leave (they were randomly selected by Trudeau for quarantining) on Trudeau junior except in Western Canada (though he DOES have very pretty hair and face.)

So why did we make a half-baked change to Metric? Was the official excuse that "the American's made us do it" the real reason? Or is the REAL reason that Trudeau and other French politicians really hated the fact the system everyone used was called the "English" system (yes I know SOME people will tell you it was called the Imperial system - but that's probably just as big an affront to the French who try to make you believe that the world's Linga Franca is still French and not English.)

We may not be Metric - just safety compromised due to Metric. But we can boast we have the prettiest Prime Minister in the world; I wonder: when he gets his hair cut … Does he say "Just take 2.54cm off the back."

Last thought. Remember, if you are a good Liberal. Stop using the English system and switch to the French Metric system. Keep Trudeau junior happy. And it's good for the economy, just think, you get to throw away 45% of all building materials just so they will fit existing houses and new construction, that's GOT to be good for the economy, and don't worry, Trudeau isn't REALLY concerned about the environment, he's just worried about appearing to cater to the current politically correct definition of what is good for the environment, he shows evidence that he never passed a science class after grade 6 - after all, political science is mostly drama. (For those unaware, before he became a politician, he was a substitute drama teacher, er, I guess he is still teaching drama...)

Sorry … talking about Metric in Canada, you have no choice but to bash Liberal stupid policies by daddy through to his son Trudeau, they are just such an easy target.

Side note, I hear that the metric system had its roots in the French Revolution, as a way to give the middle finger to the Ancien Régime. But then, a bunch of diplomats got together in Paris in 1875 and decided to make the Metric system International. And we all know how well things go with decisions made in Paris by a bunch of government people. (UPC are dead in 2019, the Paris accord. The last 150 years looks to me like government leaders who want to APPEAR to be doing something while actually not say "Let's go to Paris and do the agreement" as political speak for "Let's make our voters think we are doing something while actually not." )

I hear Panama has followed Canada's half-baked Metrification now. Suckers.

Next door Costa Rica on the other hand seems fully metric, except they sell foot long subway sandwiches (which are 27.94cm long.) And they sell Pizza by the diameter in inches.

Now, before you get mad and tell me "That's not the way it is in the provinces that vote Liberal traditionally". I don't really care, you get what you deserve for voting them in. But while I don't care that you get mad at me - I am truly interested in how your metric experience in Canada is different than mine, and I'll happy expand this to include any other realities, wise or foolish. After all, I am truly bilingual (bi-measureal I mean); just don't get MAD when you tell me!

As a final summary; The government won and forced a change in areas where it is meaningless and irrelevant (like km vs miles per hour) and sadly, where it is dangerous (safety standards,) and the people won everywhere else it is important (pounds, feet and inches.) Sounds like our Canadian government the last 5 decades - most decisions are meaningless and irrelevant. The people's decision: We'll use metric or English depending on how it works best for us, except for Safety, where we'll ignore safety at the government's encouragement.

Canada, a raging Metric success story, not.