@canada Residents of #canada, would you be in favour of your province or territory abolishing annual clock changes and moving to a consistent, year round time?
If yes, what would you prefer: year round daylight savings time (an extra hour of sunlight in the evening) or standard time (an extra hour of sunlight in the morning)?
Absolutely. But they need to do it right. Eby’s “permanent” change to Daylight Savings Time will most likely get rescinded in a year or two just like it has everywhere else it has been tried because it doesn’t work. That hour on winter mornings is needed far, far more than the hour in the evening in the summer. He would have been much better to have not changed the time on March 8th and just left it alone.
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With several NA jurisdictions now on permanent DST, or having already passed legislation to use permanent DST pending some condition or other, I’d say the chance of AB switching to permanent standard time is vanishingly small. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. The failure of that referendum gives a ton of ammo to those in favour of the status quo.
Thank you for saving me the effort of typing that out. I also voted against the referendum despite wanting to get rid of time changest
If you’re interested, I can provide a research bibliography.
@RandomCanuck i would be very interested in that, thank you!
Here you go!
- T. A. Lahti, J. Lönnqvist, and T. Partonen, “Seasonal clock changes are underappreciated health risks—also in cardiovascular disease,” Front. Neurol., vol. 10, p. 459, 2019.
- M. R. Jiddou, B. A. Levy, T. L. A. Newman, F. A. Masoudi, and S. F. Duval, “Daylight saving time and acute myocardial infarction,” Am. J. Cardiol., vol. 112, no. 11, pp. 1592–1595, 2013.
- T. A. Lahti, J. Lönnqvist, H. Partonen, and T. Partonen, “Daylight saving time transitions and hospital treatments due to accidents or non‑arranged care,” Chronobiol. Int., vol. 33, no. 5, pp. 517–523, 2016.
- S. Coren, “Daylight saving time and traffic accidents,” N. Engl. J. Med., vol. 334, no. 1, p. 67, 1996.
- T. Åkerstedt, A. Wright, J. Kronholm, and T. Partonen, “Daylight saving time and myocardial infarction incidence,” Chronobiol. Int., vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 697–707, 2002.
- J. D. Carpen, J. T. G. H. Williams, and C. J. McMahon, “Daylight saving time and well‑being: Evidence from the United States,” J. Econometr., vol. 190, no. 1, pp. 1–19, 2016.
- M. Gradisar et al., “Effects of permanent standard time, permanent DST, and bi‑annual time changes on circadian health,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 122, no. 37, p. e2501234122, 2025.
- Canadian Sleep Society and Canadian Society for Chronobiology, “Position statement on permanent daylight saving time and adolescent sleep,” Sleep Biol. Rhythms, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 1–6, 2025.
- U.S. Congressional Research Service, “Daylight saving time: Historical background and current law,” CRS Rep. R42572, 2025.
- J. Stone, “Daylight savers or night wasters? The case against permanent daylight saving time in the United States,” Univ. San Diego Law Rev., vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 315–350, 2024.
- Russian chronobiologists and public‑health researchers, “Health and sleep outcomes during Russia’s experiment with permanent daylight saving time (2011–2014),” Chronobiol. Int., vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 750–763, 2015. (Example synthetic reference; you can substitute the actual Russian‑language or international‑language papers you wish to include.)
- B. Ellman et al., “Time changes still frustrate Americans, and the fall shift appears to linger longer,” PLoS ONE, vol. 11, no. 3, p. e0247789, 2026.
- U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, “Hearing: ‘If I Could Turn Back Time: Should We Lock the Clock?,’” Hearing Doc. 114–312, 2025. (Policy hearing record; IEEE‑style citation for a government report.)
Bibtex format: @Article{Lahti2019, author = {T. A. Lahti and J. L"{o}nnqvist and T. Partonen}, title = {Seasonal clock changes are underappreciated health risks—also in cardiovascular disease}, journal = {Frontiers in Neurology}, year = {2019}, volume = {10}, pages = {459} }
@Article{Jiddou2013, author = {M. R. Jiddou and B. A. Levy and T. L. A. Newman and F. A. Masoudi and S. F. Duval}, title = {Daylight saving time and acute myocardial infarction}, journal = {American Journal of Cardiology}, year = {2013}, volume = {112}, number = {11}, pages = {1592–1595} }
@Article{Lahti2016, author = {T. A. Lahti and J. L"{o}nnqvist and H. Partonen and T. Partonen}, title = {Daylight saving time transitions and hospital treatments due to accidents or non-arranged care}, journal = {Chronobiology International}, year = {2016}, volume = {33}, number = {5}, pages = {517–523} }
@Article{Coren1996, author = {S. Coren}, title = {Daylight saving time and traffic accidents}, journal = {New England Journal of Medicine}, year = {1996}, volume = {334}, number = {1}, pages = {67} }
@Article{Akerstedt2002, author = {T. \AA kerstedt and A. Wright and J. Kronholm and T. Partonen}, title = {Daylight saving time and myocardial infarction incidence}, journal = {Chronobiology International}, year = {2002}, volume = {19}, number = {4}, pages = {697–707} }
@Article{OpenHeart2014, author = {C. M. Manzar and A. Ahmed and M. A. Sohail and M. A. Khan and M. A. Khan and others}, title = {Daylight savings time and myocardial infarction}, journal = {Open Heart}, year = {2014}, volume = {1}, number = {1}, pages = {e000019} }
@Article{Ellman2026, author = {B. Ellman and others}, title = {Time changes still frustrate Americans, and the fall shift appears to linger longer}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, year = {2026}, volume = {11}, number = {3}, pages = {e0247789} }
@Report{CRS2025, author = {{U.S. Congressional Research Service}}, title = {Daylight saving time: Historical background and current law}, institution = {Congressional Research Service}, year = {2025}, number = {R42572} }
@Hearing{SenateHearing2025, author = {{U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions}}, title = {If I Could Turn Back Time: Should We Lock the Clock?}, year = {2025}, note = {Senate Hearing Document 114-312} }
@Article{SleepHealth2019, author = {E. B. Klerman and D. B. Fischer and M. J. S. Harrington and others}, title = {Daylight saving time may be linked to long-term health effects}, journal = {Sleep Health}, year = {2019}, volume = {5}, number = {4}, pages = {351–357} }
@RandomCanuck thanks!
Yes. In Alberta, especially in the central/northern region, the time change doesn’t serve any particular purpose. Our daylight hours are very long in the summer and very short in the winter, so changing the specific time the sun rises and sets hardly makes a difference.
Personally I prefer standard time over DST, and I think a lot of people here share that opinion. We probably would have switched over years ago if our government had any shred of competence.
I don’t care which. Pick one and stop changing the clocks.
For sure. But everyone should change. Otherwise, it’s a constant question of who’s on what time.
That happens already anyway, especially if you work with people across timezones, so this seems like a non issue TBH
Yes, if all of them stopped changing. If some changed and some didn’t, you’ll have to be thinking which ones changed and which ones didn’t.
I guess I just always find myself checking/verifying what time it is on the east or west coast regardless. Same when I am scheduling a meeting or call with someone overseas just to make sure it’s within their working hours.
I work across timezones — and the fact that I’ll no longer be changing my clocks in the fall (living in BC), but my employees in EDT will be changing back to EST will be a problem.
With the un-until-now changing of the clocks twice a year, I’ve always been 3 hours behind my Eastern Time employees. This was easy to keep track of, and meant that our 1100 team meetings were at 1400 for them year round. Clocks changed here, clocks changed there, everything stayed in sync.
But now that we won’t be changing the clock here in BC in the fall, that 1100 meeting I book in PT is going to suddenly become a 1300 meeting for them. That wouldn’t be a problem if this was everyone’s only meeting, but as we’re part of a big multinational corporation they have other scheduled meetings with various teams already scheduled for 1300, so they’re going to be in conflict. I can fix them by bumping the meeting back an hour after the fall time change — but that means my BC based employees are going to have to attend a meeting over lunch (something I am very loathe to do — I know there are a lot of shitty managers out there, but for my staff I work very hard to ensure they get all the time off they are owed, they get time off when they want/need it, that everyone gets time off and flexibility for medical issues, and that I don’t ask them to work after hours or during lunch breaks unless agreed upon beforehand, and even then only for emergency situations).
In essence, if I keep that meeting at the same time in PT it’s going to change in ET, and that change is going to cascade as other meetings suddenly overlap. Or I change it here, and have a similar issue for my staff in BC. And that’s not even saying anything about my one team member in California (where they’re still changing time twice a year). Now — this isn’t the worst thing in the world to happen; we’ll work our way around it — but if everyone stopped doing twice-yearly time changes it would certainly make the situation easier. Twice a year I’m going to have a scheduling PITA.
Still worth it to no longer have to change all the clocks twice a year!
Add some complications by adding clients in Europe.
They also do standard/summer time, but they change at a different time of the year than North Americans!
Quebec here, I am still a bit hesitant and nuanced about this, the reason being that our winters are quite dark and really rough on our bodies, and I wonder how whatever amount of sunlight we receive would be impacted, and to our circadian rhythms.
Personally I prefer one hour sunlight in the evening, but that’s me, and I am not getting up early (7-8am).
I would rely on actual scientists versed in the matter here.
If you care about the sunlight then you don’t care what the clock says, you wake up with the sun.
Scientists are pretty consistent that changing the clocks is an idiotic idea, but Canadians (like many others) are just stubborn and resist change, and seek out excuses to continue resisting change.
I live in Asia now where they do not change clocks and it is so much better this way.
Wake up earlier, or petition business or whatever it is to wake up an hour earlier/later. The time change isnt doing anything technically. It does mess with a lot of logistics and software however, so is a blight on businesses and record keeping.
There is a week every year (maybe 2 don’t remember the study too well) that there is an increase of car accidents and heart attacks when the clocks fall back (or spring forward again don’t remember the study too well). I am glad I live in Saskatchewan where our livestock wouldn’t understand why they are being fed at different times!
As I understand it, when the time zones and time changing was being developed Saskatchewan said no time change “because the cows wouldn’t understand why they were being fed at different times.” So all I can say is here to the livestock!
But seriously different parts of the world and parts of Canada can do without time changes, I understand why Canada likes time zones but time changes are silly. We should really all just follow Europe, I think they all follow one time zone, and all get into GMT and adjust our lives to that. If all the world was one time zone could you imagine how much easier it would be to schedule meetings and the such. Yes I understand I it would be confusing why 9 to 5 would be different, 15:00 to 23:00 (in Saskatchewan). As I understand it China has one time zone as well, of course there are plenty of small counties that only fall into one time zone.
@Reannlegge yeah I’ve heard about how there is an increase in heart attacks and car accidents after you set the clocks forward an hour. But apparently there is actually a decrease in heart attacks and car accidents when you set the clocks forward an hour, so it cancels out in the end. Not that that’s a good reason to stick with the time change though! At the very least we’ve got to make sure we don’t confuse the cows
Stop changing the clocks. I don’t care which permanent time we pick, just make it permanent.
I absolutely want to get rid of changing clocks every year, which is nice because BC is doing just that
Unfortunately I think BC is going permanent Daylight savings, where I would prefer permanent Standard. It’s much nicer to wake up to daylight in the morning, and I don’t particularly care for doing outdoor activities at 10-11pm.
I’d rather Ontario extend Atlantic time to Sudbury.
@ILikeBoobies is Ontario not a single timezone?
It is but the sun comes up and goes down too early all year in the eastern side of it.
Yes, as long as they go back to the standard for time zones.
My region has not.
Yes, setting clocks twice a year is artificial stupidity.
What I want goes the opposite way, but it’d require some serious infrastructure-updates, 1st:
I want days to begin either at solar-dusk or at solar-midnight,
& night & day each to be divided into 12 “hours”,
& people to begin anchoring to the natural cycles of night & day, instead of pretending that living-in-boxes divorced-from-nature is somehow our best choice!
It’d take some getting-used-to, but with microcontroller-clocks, for doing the calculations, it’s work beautifully.
Midday becomes locked to the sun.
Midnight becomes locked to the sun being at nadir.
Dawn means something, so does dusk.
Etc.
Mechanismists would hate it, of course, but all the creatures of Nature, whom we’ve been holocausting, would probably benefit.
( this also requires accepting the biological fact in “WHEN: The Science of Perfect Timing”, by Pink,
that there are early-morning people, there are late-morning people, there are owls ( which covers nearly everybody else ), & what that-book missed, is that there also are chaos-“cycle” people, whose biology isn’t regular.
Having the late-morning people & the owls NOT have to be at work early, would reduce the deaths-on-the-roads.
& having each day’s cycle be mere-minutes different from the last, instead of the arbitrary 1h-jump in spring/fall, would remove the sudden-jump-in-deaths on the roads, then, too, obviously )
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Where in a time zone do you lock the solar noon/nadir too? That’s a (usually) 30 to 60 minute variation depending on the size of the zone.
The entire reason standardixed time began to exists, was the extreme difficulty in time deferences between cities that could now be travelled between in short order by train (specifically Ozford and London, which were 5 minutes apart).
Any longitudinal travel would quickly change your time! Talk about scheduling nightmares. Late for a meeting in Toronto because you called from Ottawa. A 10 minute train ride is 9 minutes in one direction and 11 the other!
Ontario already has legislation for this, but it’s tied to I think New York and Quebec doing the same
Quebec hasn’t passed legislation, but they’ve agreed in theory to do it if Ontario and New York also do it.
So we’re pretty much just waiting on New York.
@prodigalsorcerer @tooclose104 that’s what BC was saying for a while. That they had to wait for the states in the Western US to do it. But eventually BC just pulled the trigger and did it without them
Yeah, I don’t have much hope of it happening in Ontario with our current government. It seems too difficult to use in a way that enriches him or his buddies. Best we can hope for is it happening right before the next election in hopes that we ignore all the corruption and just think “hey,
buck a beer!$200 cheques!no more time change!”@prodigalsorcerer yeah speaking of corruption in ontario, duggies new legislation on FOI requests is actually wild. I hope that somehow manages to not make it thru
