> Carl Sorenson wrote: "I can't wait to see some metric-only labels at the > grocery store!" > > I was in Vancouver from late Saturday to early Tuesday. In at least one > store (a huge delicatessen on Burrard Street, near Robson Street [the > toniest part of town]), I noted that all produce was marked in price per > pound, with the SI equivalent in smaller characters. Even more disappointing > than the last time I was there (last July).
It's very common in Canada to see produce advertised with the ifp in large text and the SI much smaller characters. > The idiocy of Brian Mulroney (former, very-short-term, Canadian Prime > Minister) in rolling back the regulations, combined with US influence, has > not helped Canada's metric health. I'm not a lover of Brian Mulroney, but keep in mind that he and his Progressive Conservative Party have been out of power for a long time, and the subsequent Liberal governments haven't done anything to reverse the metrication that Mulroney stopped. > At least metric distances survived (how else could it be, with the traffic > signs and all vehicles already converted?), along with Celsius temperatures. The rest of weather reporting is also fully metricated with snow forcasts given in cm, rain in mm, and atmospheric pressure in kPa. Quite a few delis price and sell their meats in $/100 g. The butcher that I use prices his meats solely in $/kg, which is one of the reasons I use him. > However, supermarket labeling is vastly inferior to that in Britain, even > though Britain's conversion started much later. Probablybecause Britain isn't sitting right next door to the largest non-metric country in the world. True, I wish Canada would metricate more, but until it gains momentum in the US, I don't see it happening. Stephen Gallagher
