I had never heard this story of how close Canada came to dumping metric.
Thank goodness Prime Minister Trudeau stood firm in 1976. Even Jimmy
Carter, unbeknownst to him, saved metric in Canada if not in the U.S.
Would that we had had a President as foresightful and courageous as
Trudeau!
Martin Morrison, "Metric Today" Columnist
============
From: Kamloops This Week
www.kamloopsthisweek.com/where-are-they-now-len-marchand-still-watching-political-scene/
"By 1976, Marchand was in cabinet as Minister of State for Small Business
and handed the task of bringing the metric system to Canada.
"I was really getting a lot of heat about metric, Marchand says. So, I
said to Pierre [Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada], Give me the word and I
can dismantle it. But, he said, We are a trading nation and one of the
last great nations in the world not going metric.
"At one time, Marchand says, he had a letter from then-U.S. president
Jimmy Carter confirming that country would also go metric."
_______________________________________________
USMA mailing list
USMA@colostate.edu
https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
