It didn't work because nobody f*cking tried. Once the original FTA agreement was signed it seems businesses and successive govts were more than happy to run with the status quo. As for your metric analogy, you just described diversification. We didn't drop Imperial, we just added metric as well. Hell, when I'm trying to visualize how far away something is I think in miles. When I work out how long it should take to get there I think in km/h.
As for Alberta oil, Albertans did that to themselves. They didn't want to nationalize the oil (NEP) which by that time was becoming a strategic resource, when there was still an appetite for building pipelines. Could have built an eastern flow line. Could have also increased delivery capacity to the West Coast and been shipping oil to Asia for decades. Albertans shot themselves in the foot and now they're whining about gangrene.
