Celebrating 50 years of Celsius: Canada’s journey in degrees
April 1, 1975, was the day Canada gave Fahrenheit the boot and started using Celsius to measure temperature.
April 1, 2025, marks 50 years since Canada started measuring temperature in degrees Celsius. To celebrate, let’s take a trip through the history of how we came to know and love this metric unit of measurement.
This journey actually started in 1742, when astronomer and geographer Anders Celsius proposed a simpler scale than that of Daniel Fahrenheit, which had been used as the standard unit of temperature measurement since 1724. Celsius based the scale of 100, originally called ‘Centigrade,’ on two distinct points—water’s freezing point and its boiling point. Celsius also standardized the scale based on sea level measurements, understanding that atmospheric pressure affects water’s boiling point.
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Some changes were made to Celsius’s scale throughout history, such as reversing the scale, which originally had 100°C representing water’s freezing point and 0°C being the boiling point, as well as adding negative numbers to it.
A thermometer from Jasper National Park, Alta., that was bought in 1991. Converting to degrees Celsius was Canada's first major step in implementing the metric system. (Anika Beaudry/TWN)
Canada makes the switch from imperial to metric units
Canada used imperial units for everything in day-to-day life until the 1970s, when the federal government first proposed transitioning to metric units for their simplicity and international use. In 1971, the idea was implemented into federal policies, and thus began Canada’s use of the metric system.
The conversion from imperial to metric was a slow one, lasting into the 1980s, and it wasn’t until 1975 that forecasts started using degrees Celsius.
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The change was obviously met with backlash from Canadians, as they felt the government was taking away something they had known for their whole lives—and the mathematical conversion from imperial to metric isn’t a simple one. The backlash even became a hot topic in political debates between federal parties.
But with time, Canadians became used to metric units and have even come to love them, including degrees Celsius. There are still many instances where imperial units like Fahrenheit are used, though, such as when measuring oven temperatures, and many Canadians who grew up using Fahrenheit still use it as their primary temperature unit 50 years later.
Historical information sourced from Jstor and The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Thumbnail image created using Canva Pro.