Happy Birthday, Celsius!

Environment Canada香蕉视频直播檚 use of Celsius turns 50 years old in 2025.

It was the catalyst of a lengthy national metric conversion that abruptly ended a decade after it began.

The result is seen and felt every day. Canadians wear clothes measured in inches and buy gas by the litre. They drink from millilitre beer cans and step on bathroom scales in pounds. They eat cereal by the gram and sub sandwiches by the foot.

Give someone an inch, and they香蕉视频直播檒l take a kilometre.

A bone-chilling April Fools香蕉视频直播� Day in 1975 marked the first time Canadians used Celsius to measure weather temperature.

香蕉视频直播淲e were the guinea pig,香蕉视频直播� said David Phillips with Environment and Climate Change Canada. He joined the weather service seven years before the Celsius switch.

They tried to get the word out, he said.

香蕉视频直播淚 remember that first little flyer that (said), 香蕉视频直播業t香蕉视频直播檚 no April Fools香蕉视频直播� joke.香蕉视频直播�

But some tuning into TV and radio that day might not have got the memo.

In a world where water freezes at 32 F, Canadians failing to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius woke up aghast at forecasts ranging from -2 C in Toronto to -27 C in Edmonton.

香蕉视频直播淭o hell with the weather maps and figures in Celsius,香蕉视频直播� wrote one senior in a letter to the London Free Press.

The switch kicked in just as a severe storm hit the Maritimes, and some felt Celsius was to blame.

香蕉视频直播淪ince those experts changed from the old Fahrenheit thermometers, the weather香蕉视频直播檚 been lousy,香蕉视频直播� an angry reader told The Bridgewater Bulletin in Nova Scotia.

Most Canadian media used both units for awhile. Some seniors near the Canada-U.S. border opted for American TV and radio for Fahrenheit-focused forecasts. By 1977, all Canadian weather reports used metric measurements.

香蕉视频直播淭he strategy of going to the weather service first and getting them involved really paid off,香蕉视频直播� said Phillips.

One month into the switch, the head of Canada香蕉视频直播檚 Metric Commission, Stevenson Gossage, said negative reactions were 香蕉视频直播渄ying down.香蕉视频直播�

Metric appeared poised to stay. Or was it?

Then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau香蕉视频直播檚 Liberal government formed the Metric Commission in 1971, after industries called on Canada to ditch Imperial measures. Along with Celsius, the commission called for road signs to use kilometres by 1977 and gas pumps to measure in litres by 1979.

In the U.S., then-president Gerald Ford enacted similar legislation, but conversion was voluntary.

It got political 香蕉视频直播� and nasty.

More than three dozen Conservative members of Parliament, including Bill Domm of Peterborough, Ont., championed petitions with thousands of signatures and opened a 香蕉视频直播渇reedom to measure香蕉视频直播� gas bar that sold fuel by the gallon or the litre.

Domm said they were ready to go to jail over the issue.

In 1983, an Air Canada flight dubbed the 香蕉视频直播淕imli Glider香蕉视频直播� made an emergency landing at a Manitoba airfield after running out of fuel. Faulty metric-Imperial conversion was cited as a factor.

Gossage died in January 2001. Jonathan Gossage said his father felt the transition to metric was important for Canada, as the Imperial system an 香蕉视频直播渦nnecessary bottleneck香蕉视频直播� in international trade.

香蕉视频直播淢y take on it always was that it was the right way to go,香蕉视频直播� the 87-year-old said in a phone interview from Ottawa.

He also said he felt those naysayers were 香蕉视频直播渟hort-sighted.香蕉视频直播�

香蕉视频直播淚f the conversion was going to be easy for you, you had to be good at mental arithmetic. If you weren香蕉视频直播檛 good at mental arithmetic, it was a much more difficult proposition.香蕉视频直播�

Gossage said the transition has worked out well, as younger generations are raised with metric being their primary unit of measurement. However, there are still times when he has to use Imperial.

By the early 香蕉视频直播�80s, then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan torpedoed Ford香蕉视频直播檚 Metric Act and the Metric Board as a cost-cutting measure. Former prime minister Brian Mulroney and his Conservative government followed suit, disbanding the metric commission and making the switchover voluntary.

In the end, the metric revolution resulted in a half-built house.

Edmonton quilter Jody Groenendyk uses Imperial regularly because it香蕉视频直播檚 the industry standard, and it香蕉视频直播檚 easier to divide.

香蕉视频直播�(Imperial) is just so familiar,香蕉视频直播� she said. 香蕉视频直播淢ost of the rulers that we香蕉视频直播檙e able to obtain are in Imperial. Some of them do have centimetres on them as well, but I would say a lot of them don香蕉视频直播檛.香蕉视频直播�

Liam Brownrigg of Union Wood Co. in Vancouver said much of the material he buys is measured in Imperial.

One of his co-workers, who once worked in Quebec, told him people in that province primarily use metric measurements. He doesn香蕉视频直播檛 see people rushing to change the mixed system any time soon.

香蕉视频直播淚f ever a client gives me a dimension in centimetres or something, the first thing I do is just convert it,香蕉视频直播� he said.

If Canada brought back mandatory metrication, Brownrigg said switching would be a pain but people would get used to it. Groenendyk also said it would be challenging to adapt.

香蕉视频直播淲ouldn香蕉视频直播檛 be easy, but it would be doable,香蕉视频直播� she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2024.

香蕉视频直播� With files from Jack Farrell in Edmonton

Aaron Sousa, The Canadian Press