The curriculum you experienced 27 years ago and the one today is vastly different, keep in mind.

Primary, junior, senior and high school maths have changed.By standards I am not really what you mean by this. From what I have seen in workshops, conferences, PLCs, etc "standards" are left to individual teachers to establish so long as the curriculum is consulted. If anything, primary teachers create their own rubrics. The math curriculum has its own rubric but it is left up to the teacher's decision how they teach math. If anything, the only "standard" there is is the EQAO test in primary education along with the curriculum. 
How math is carried out is left entirely to the teacher's discretion.