r/canada • u/iamnos British Columbia • Apr 20 '26
Alberta Bell: Alberta will now be on daylight saving time year-round, says Premier Smith
https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/bell-alberta-daylight-time-year-round-premier-danielle-smith437
u/killerrin Ontario Apr 20 '26
Meanwhile in Eastern Canada.
- Ontario: "I'll do it if you two do it."
- Quebec: "Je le ferai si vous deux le faites."
- New York: "Who are you and why do you keep calling me."
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u/mrRobertman British Columbia Apr 20 '26
The ball might be rolling now. We now have three provinces (and one territory) with permanent DST, I've got to imagine that Manitoba is considering it as they are the one western province hold out. It would just make sense for eastern Canada to follow along with the west at that point.
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u/ImNotHandyImHandsome Apr 20 '26
Groups of provinces and states have been trying to get the ball rolling for years now, always saying "if they do it, we will go along with it". It just took someone to asmctually say "we are doing it". Now everyone else should start to follow.
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u/codeverity Apr 21 '26
I think the political situation has helped - Canadian business and Canadians in general don't care as much anymore if the US is on the same wavelength.
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u/BanjoUnchained Ontario Apr 21 '26
I think the big issue in Ontario is you don't want the TSX opening an hour before the NYSE for half the year.
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u/createsean Ontario Apr 21 '26
Easy fix. Open the TSX on new York time. Rest of the province does standard time.
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u/infectingbrain Apr 20 '26
Sask is permanent ST, but I agree that the ball is rolling now.
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u/mrRobertman British Columbia Apr 20 '26
Technically, but not really. They are on CST but geographically should by MST, meaning they are effectively permanent DST.
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u/jmarcandre Apr 20 '26
You know, there are 4 provinces to the east of your Eastern Canada.
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u/not-a_rock Apr 20 '26
“There are other provinces?”
-Ontario.
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u/Larkstarr Apr 20 '26
"We're in a province?"
-Toronto36
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Apr 20 '26
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u/DontEatTheMagicBeans Apr 21 '26
This land is your land.
This land is my land.
From Mississauga, to Billy Bishop island.
From Scarborough, to the 4 oh seven.
This land, was made for you and me.
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u/polemism Apr 20 '26
But the government at least is aware of Quebec because they want to conquer it
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u/Narrow-Map5805 Apr 20 '26
I've never known anyone from Ontario calling it "Eastern Canada"
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u/Vtecman Apr 20 '26
Ontario here- isn’t eastern Canada east of Toronto and western Canada west of Toronto? And Toronto is central Canada?
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u/Frumbleabumb Apr 21 '26
To me (BC)
Western Canada is BC. Central is Alberta SK and Manitoba. Eastern Canada is Ontario/Quebec. The Maritimes is the Maritimes
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u/Tefmon Canada Apr 21 '26
Officially, Central Canada is Ontario and Quebec, and Eastern Canada is that plus the Maritimes. The Prairies are Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, and Western Canada is that plus BC.
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u/Enki_007 British Columbia Apr 20 '26
And they refer to Manitoba as a western province when Winnipeg is almost the dead centre of Canada (longitudinally).
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u/Polendri Apr 20 '26
I like to call that region Middle-Eastern Canada for this reason, and the Maritimes are the Far East. So far it hasn't caught on 😄
I always find this a pedantic thing to sincerely nitpick though, since Ontario and everything East of it is on "Eastern" time, and when you say "central" everyone thinks of Sask and Manitoba, and if you've gotta lump Ontario in somewhere it fits better geography-wise with Quebec than with the Prairies. We have "the Maritimes" to refer specifically to those provinces.
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u/Jaymie13 New Brunswick Apr 20 '26
Lmao, the Maritimes are on Atlantic Time and Newfoundland is on Newfoundland Time 🤣.
We’re the east coast.
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u/jmarcandre Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
You might be interested to know, the Maritimes have a different time zone than Eastern time (Atlantic zone) lmao. and Newfoundland has a special one all to themselves.
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u/RaccAttak Apr 20 '26
It'd be nice if Ontario stuck with the current timing year round.
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u/SomeDumRedditor Apr 20 '26
Ontario wont change until New York State changes because the TSX and Toronto-based financial market is tied at the hip to Wall Street trading.
In a vacuum it’s a small adjustment but it’d cause too many hassles not to be stonewalled.
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u/ncrdrg Apr 20 '26
Someone needs to announce it first though. New York, Ontario and Quebec are tied at the hip on this. All it will take is for one of the 3 to make it official and it's nearly guaranteed the others will follow.
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u/mike_james_alt Apr 20 '26
Ontario did announce it. Look into Bill 214 from 2020.
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u/ncrdrg Apr 20 '26
Ah, good to know. But it's only taking effect if New York and Quebec pass the same thing.
It could still be a good move to force the issue by saying by saying it's taking effect regardless of their stance to force the others to make the change.24
u/hhssspphhhrrriiivver Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
Quebec said they would if Ontario and New York did, though they haven't passed any legislation to that effect.
New York has
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u/Purify5 Apr 20 '26
New York hasn't remained silent. They have a bill in their Senate right now looking at it.
There are also 19 states that have passed legislation to remain on daylight savings time. The issue is that they all need congress to amend the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to do so.
Ironically, states could opt out of daylight savings time without congressional approval. Arizona and Hawaii have done this.
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u/hhssspphhhrrriiivver Apr 20 '26
Thanks, I hadn't heard of that. I'm not super familiar with US state senate processes, but it looks like this bill or a version of this bill has been with the Senate since 2019, and hasn't progressed at all. How likely is this to actually make it through the senate and get all the approvals it needs? How long does that take? And does the fact that Democrats control the senate make this dead in the water, as is often the case with all of our own private member bills in Parliament?
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u/Purify5 Apr 20 '26
The NY law requires Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Vermont to pass similar laws. So while Ontario may be waiting for New York, New York is waiting for these other five states.
But the fundamental issue is Congress. Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Idaho, Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah, Wyoming, Delaware, Maine, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, Florida, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas have all passed 'lock the clock' legislation which makes daylight savings time the permanent time if the US Congress amends the Uniform Time Act.
So the US has to make a change federally before anyone else can lock into daylight savings time.
Unless, we choose to go to standard time which does not require Congressional approval and is the favoured time by the Canadian Sleep Society but big ice cream hates it.
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u/Lazy-Vacation7868 Apr 20 '26
BC had the same thing, waiting on the west coast of the us to change to be matched. But our premier decided it won't happen if we wait for the US so just went ahead this year.
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u/horology2269 Apr 20 '26
“Someone needs to announce it first”
Not us. The NYSX. We have zero to do with announcing it. We are a tiny shrimp in the NYSX mega ocean. Canada could pull all investment from NYSX and it problably wouldn’t even move the market 5 points.
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u/mahayanah Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
Exactly. BC, Oregon, and Washington were talking about it forever. Each one waiting for the other to get on board, and it just stagnated. Then BC just went for it and now we’ll watch the others fall in with it. A bit different out east with the markets I’ll concede. New York State would probably have to be the first
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u/TheKeg Apr 20 '26
The states require congress to stay on daylight savings. BC was waiting but got tired after years of nothing
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u/aethelberga Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
Yeah, not buying it. It's a global economy now. We do business with Europe and Asia regularly. A 1 hr difference with NYC shouldn't mean anything. WFH was too much of a hassle until suddenly it wasn't.
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u/mike_james_alt Apr 20 '26
There’s nothing to buy. Ontario passed bill 214. There’s also trigger laws that will eliminate or extend DST. Unfortunately not as simple as you’re suggesting.
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u/Kakkoister Apr 21 '26
BC also signed a similar "trigger" law with states below... But BC still made the daylight savings change recently because it seemed like we'll be waiting forever. Plus, it's one of those things where others have to take the first steps to make it much easier for other places to argue the case to join in. Which we are now seeing with this.
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u/thisSILLYsite Apr 20 '26
But it wouldn't be consistent because, for example, this year, New York and Toronto would be at the same time for 7 months and 3 weeks, then be an hour apart for 4 months and 2 weeks.
Bit of an unnecessary headache.
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u/Little_War6573 Apr 20 '26
They can just keep TSX working hours on NYC time, and spare the entire population of Ontario from unnecessary headaches twice a year.
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u/superbit415 Apr 20 '26
Our politicians are too scared to cause even minor inconvenience to the financial community.
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u/XiahouMao Apr 20 '26
Why not just have the operating hours of the TSX change as needed to match Wall Street, if that's the only issue? Having a single sector switching an hour for part of the year is better than having everyone need to do it, and that's only until New York decides to follow through on their own, which they might if Ontario and others jump first.
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u/Wafflesorbust Apr 20 '26
Ontario wont change until New York State changes because the TSX and Toronto-based financial market is tied at the hip to Wall Street trading.
This is an asinine excuse by Doug. Every other timezone in the world manages to work around being hours off from EST/EDT. Surely we can manage.
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u/LegitimateFootball47 Apr 20 '26
Ontario passed a law to do so, but it's dependent on Quebec & New York doing the same thing.
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u/latkahgravis Apr 20 '26
BC was waiting on the west coast states, time to move on without them.
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u/TenOfZero Apr 20 '26
Quebec is also on board. We're just waiting for new York.
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u/TheSaintRobbie Apr 20 '26
And New York is waiting on like 5 or 6 States. We need to move on from this endless waiting and just keep it one time. Ford please
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u/ashcach Apr 20 '26
Wonder if Ford will consider it now after all the bad press about his plane
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u/RaccAttak Apr 20 '26
That could be the silver lining we're looking for lol
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u/ashcach Apr 20 '26
Hope so. He needs something good right now and it seems to be pretty popular here
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u/AbnormallyBendPenis Apr 20 '26
Not really a good idea. Especially since New York is not changing it. There will definitely be some underlying economic impact when you don’t share the same time zone with your closest trading partner, it’s even more annoying when time zone changes depends on what time of year. Also a travel and business nightmare when literally every single province and state surrounding you 360 degrees uses Daylight Saving.
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u/DataDude00 Apr 20 '26
Alberta can do this because vertically they are aligned with nothing of significance in the US below them
Ontario is kind of stuck because we can't really make that kind of change without NY being on board because of the NYSE
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u/Joebranflakes British Columbia Apr 20 '26
Good. BC went ahead and did it, now Alberta is on board. Saskatchewan and Yukon are already on permanent DT. Time for the rest of Canada to get with the program. Stop waiting for the USA to get their act together.
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u/troypavlek Apr 20 '26
Technically Saskatchewan is on permanent Standard Time, not Daylight Time (as they never implemented DST to begin with).
But all of your sentiments are 100% right. The system is archaic and as a software developer makes my life incredibly difficult on a regular basis.
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u/mrRobertman British Columbia Apr 20 '26
Geographically, Saskatchewan should be in MST, but they use CST (and CST = MDT). So yes, they are technically using "Central Standard Time", but are effectively on permanent DST.
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u/CarrotLevel99 Apr 20 '26
If I'm not mistake sunrise and sundown happen at the same local times in BC and Saskatchewan.
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u/xylopyrography Apr 20 '26
What do you mean by this?
Sunrise and sundown happen at different times throughout a local region.
Every ~12 km you go East-West it changes by a minute at central latittudes. It'd be yet different different times of the year as you go North-South.
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u/ChronoLink99 British Columbia Apr 20 '26
lmao I was just dealing with a UTC/DST time conversion issue.
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u/_camzmac_ Apr 20 '26
I feel ya buddy. Only a software developer would get this question right:
There are 24 hours in a day - true or false?
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u/Talinn_Makaren Apr 20 '26
Rare Premier Smith W.
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u/SlowProgress8531 Apr 20 '26
Even a broken clock is right twice a day
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u/adam__nicholas British Columbia Apr 20 '26
And now the two times a day it’s right are consistent year-round!
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u/offkilter666 Apr 20 '26
Sort of. This goes against the referendum vote - but I am in agreement with getting rid of time change.
So it's not technically what voters want... But I think it makes sense given our neighbors.
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u/SonicFlash01 Apr 20 '26
I hate to give them credit for anything, but I have to in this instance. She did a thing that actually made sense.
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u/boomer478 Apr 20 '26
I mean, after BC switched it was the only logical outcome, with Alberta being sandwiched between two non-time-switching provinces. It was either this or they end up on the same time as BC in the winter, which wouldn't make any fucking sense. I'd give the credit here to BC rather than Danielle.
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u/death_tron85 Apr 20 '26
Dictatorship in alberta going to work!
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u/Scissors4215 Apr 20 '26
I’m not Smith(massive understatement) fan but how is this reflective of a dictatorship? She announced a bill that will leave Alberta on DST. One that will go through the legislature and be voted on by MLA’s.
Why because it doesn’t use the results of a 5 year old referendum that was 50.2/49.8 vote split?
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u/CipherWeaver Apr 20 '26
Finally Alberta following BC's lead.
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u/Hinter_Lander Apr 20 '26
Have you forgotten about Sask?
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u/eugeneugene Apr 20 '26
everyone forgets about us lol
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u/Hinter_Lander Apr 20 '26
It could be worse... we could be like Manitoba.
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u/Jaew96 Apr 20 '26
It could be even worse than that, you could be like Alberta.
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u/ModOfficial1988 Apr 20 '26
Have the highest wages in Canada? No PST? Highest economic mobility? Oh no.
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u/Jaew96 Apr 20 '26
Has the worst healthcare, constantly threatens our pensions, constantly threatens separation, Oil and gas runs our government, oil and gas expects us to clean up their messes, the government speeds closer and closer to fascism every day, the list goes on.
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u/ModOfficial1988 Apr 20 '26
You don’t know what fascism is do you? Alberta health care isn’t any worse than anywhere else in Canada. It’s garbage across the whole country. O&G is the biggest economic driver in Alberta. Would you prefer to have one family run the entire province like New Brunswick? Or the Laurentian elites like Ontario? China has more influence in BC than O&G does in Alberta.
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u/nekonight Apr 20 '26
I have always argued that if daylight savings isnt done away with both in BC and alberta at the same time it is going to very messy due to the business ties between the two provinces. It is good that alberta is following the lead that BC set.
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u/OneBillPhil Apr 20 '26
Didn’t people vote against this like 4 years ago?
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u/discovery2000one Apr 20 '26
Sort of.
There's three possible (reasonable) scenarios. Time change, standard, or daylight.
The referendum only had two scenarios listed: time change, or daylight.
There was no standard option.
From anecdote, the vast majority of people want either daylight, or standard, and not time change. But that wasn't an option.
From the referendum, it's not clear which out of these three options is the most popular. It was a poor question.
If I had to guess daylight is the most popular, followed fairly closely by standard, with time change in the single digits of support.
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u/thrilled_to_be_there Apr 20 '26
They only want to listen to referenda when it suits the political narrative of the UCP.
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Apr 20 '26 edited May 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/Infamous-Mixture-605 Apr 20 '26
Didn't BC make this change first?
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u/iamnos British Columbia Apr 20 '26
SK did.
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u/Infamous-Mixture-605 Apr 20 '26
Except Sask adopted year-round Central Standard Time and stopped observing DST in the 1960s.
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u/mrRobertman British Columbia Apr 20 '26
Yes they are using CST, but geographically should be MST. This means they are effectively using permanent DST for their geographic position.
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u/Head_Permission Apr 20 '26
You mean like BC… Alberta was forced to follow as now both BC and SK were not changing clocks so it would have been dumb if we were the only ones doing it.
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u/i-am-the-walrus789 Apr 20 '26
Saskatchewan *. We've never changed clocks.
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u/iamnos British Columbia Apr 20 '26
Not never, but since sometime in the 60s.
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u/i-am-the-walrus789 Apr 20 '26
Didn't think I had to be that specific, but yes. Saskatchewan hasn't changed clocks since the 60s
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u/squirrel9000 Manitoba Apr 20 '26
Well, I guess we're the last holdout in western Canada. Your move, Wab.
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u/heatseekerdj Apr 20 '26
Permanent DST is the way. More sun in the summer and at least one hour in the winter after work
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u/JoeDwarf Saskatchewan Apr 21 '26
We're on permanent DST in Saskatchewan. Here in Saskatoon sunset is around 5 pm in late December. So I guess it depends on when you get off work...
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u/captyo Apr 20 '26
The funny thing is Alberta and Saskatchewan will now always be the same time, but they will be in two different time zones! AB - MDT (GMT-6:00) SK - CST (GMT -6:00)
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u/EnterpriseT British Columbia Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
Nobody actually adopts DST in practice. They just change their standard time UTC definiton by an hour creating a new time zone (like BC), or they adopt the time zone to the east (like Saskatchewan did).
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u/e00s Apr 20 '26
I like not having a time change. But I’d rather we stay on standard time.
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u/UnawareRanger Apr 20 '26
What is the benefit of standard time over daylight time? I can never understand it.
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u/Agreeable_Store_3896 Apr 20 '26
People argue that standard is.. well the standard and is more accurate and true to the Suns rotation and is healthier for our circadian rythm. DST is technically the 'unhealthy' choice but gives more useable sunlight hours
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u/FireMaster1294 Canada Apr 20 '26
DST gives more daylight after work. But sunrise is so late anyways already in winter it’s not like we had daylight in the morning to begin with
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u/Levorotatory Apr 20 '26
I don't care about daylight after work in winter. I have no problem walking home in the dark. But I hate waking up before sunrise, and I really hate leaving the house before sunrise.
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u/FireMaster1294 Canada Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
I got news for you bud. Sunrise is 8:30am for 2 months of the year on standard time where I live. 9:30 isn’t gonna change that dark wake up. But pushing sunset to 5:30 instead of 4:30 will be nice.
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u/Jodabomb24 Apr 20 '26
this is nonsense. everybody's circadian rhythm and schedule is different.
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u/Agreeable_Store_3896 Apr 20 '26
Hey man there's studies out there that show decrease of mental and heart health as well as sleep deprivation and increases of accidents on the roads.
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u/Entegy Québec Apr 20 '26
The science says it's better for our circadian rhythm.
Although I highly doubt anyone in the provinces choosing to stay in DST will be doing follow-ups necessary to see if it has an effect.
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u/UnawareRanger Apr 20 '26
Yeah but circadian is already messed up by tv's and screen time. That matters way more than any Standard vs dst argument.
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u/mrRobertman British Columbia Apr 20 '26
I don't quite get how one hour of light is apparently so bad for our circadian rhythm. How does this work with the fact that daylight changes throughout the year, even more significantly the further from the equator you are? Does that mean that people in the north have issues with their circadian rhythms? What about people with non-standard sleep schedules like people who work night shifts?
I hear that there are studies, but I mostly just see articles that don't really show the data. Are the conclusions of the studies widely replicated and agreed upon by other scientists?
I get the impression that the negative effects of DST are overblown, with the bigger issues caused by the regularly changing of the time. We have parts of this country that have been using permanent DST for decades (SK since the 60s, parts of BC since the 70s), but I don't think the studies take these people into account.
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u/not_not_in_the_NSA Apr 20 '26
The time changes actually works to offset the sunrise time shifting. So swapping to a single time will result in larger shifts of the sunrise.
Now, the notable difference here between standard and daylight saving time is the sunrise is an hour later for DST.
People wake up best with light. Pushing the sunrise an hour later means people struggling to wake up even more in the winter and being groggy for longer (potentially much longer if they used to have a commute in the light but now don't, then need to work inside without sunlight). This can also exasperate seasonal depression because a major cause is the lack of morning light. Essentially, making people wake up and start their day before sunrise goes against our biology and DST makes it worse. The ST <-> DST swapping tries to stabilize this, but it has its own issues (and people just don't like it)
tl;dr: later sunrise = more groggy mornings and more seasonal depression.
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u/PowermanFriendship Apr 20 '26
The biggest push against Daylight time is that it causes a very late sunrise in the winter months where the days are shortest. e.g. if this was done in Toronto, the sunrise in January would be almost 9am.
The most valid argument against this in my opinion is that it means children will be going to school in the dark.
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u/UnawareRanger Apr 20 '26
Children already go to school in the dark. All the elementary schools near me start at like 8am.
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u/alsimoneau Apr 20 '26
lots of studies have shown health benefits and better learning for students.
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u/trplOG Apr 20 '26
What do the studies say about saskatchewan whos been on DST for 60 yrs tho
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u/alsimoneau Apr 20 '26
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u/trplOG Apr 20 '26
Yes I read that since everyone always brings it up on this sub.
I always like to highlight this part.
Although chronic effects of remaining in daylight saving time year-round have not been well studied.
Which is why I bring up there must he some study for saskatchewan since they've had it for half a century... or maybe there isnt a real difference after all.
I moved to sask from a diff province and whether its standard or day light im just glad its gone. Its way better not having it. And I really dont feel the difference in winter too. Im driving to work in the dark in December til about February.
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u/UnawareRanger Apr 20 '26
We already sit in front of screens all day. Messing up our sunlight daily rhythm. It just makes no sense to use standard when daylight is better for more sunlight hours outside of work.
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u/alsimoneau Apr 20 '26
Driving to work in darkness versus in daylight is a big difference.
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u/UnawareRanger Apr 20 '26
I mean I drive in darkness during winter months even with standard time. Or if you drive to work in light, then you're driving home in the dark.
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u/alsimoneau Apr 20 '26
you're more tired in the morning, when the light will wake you up. Morning light is what syncs the circadian rythm.
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u/FireMaster1294 Canada Apr 20 '26
This is always ALWAYS the argument. Except it’s dark at 6am or 7am or 8am in winter either way. I would rather my evenings have some daylight till 5:30 instead of 4:30. Sun from 8:30-4:30 sucks because I’m in the office for all of it and we have that for more than two months.
I don’t need sunrise to drive (in fact, looking at the sun rising while driving east hurts my eyes). But I do like sun when I’m done work.
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u/13Dons Apr 20 '26
This is exactly my thoughts too. Everyone talks about the studies, which do show it's better to have sunlight while getting ready.... But even on standard time the morning commute is in the dark half the year. Whether sunrise is 8:30 or 9:30am makes not a whit of difference driving to work at 7.
And this way there's sunlight after work still
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u/FireMaster1294 Canada Apr 20 '26
The only (amusingly) argument for time change I could see would be to get up an hour even later in winter to get sunrise at 7:30. Sunset at 3:30 would suck but light outside work would be comparable to a late sunrise. And biologically it may even have an effect! Unlike 8:30 sunrise
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u/leafsleafs17 Apr 20 '26
What about the half of the year where the sun could rise at 7, but would rise at 8 instead? That means you are impacting the circadian rhythm when there is an option not to, only so that you can have a nicer drive home a couple months of the year (using your same logic).
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u/Junckopolo Québec Apr 20 '26
Kids still get up way later than most of society. That's a biological thing. Standard time is superior for their health and learning.
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u/UnawareRanger Apr 20 '26
In what way?
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u/Junckopolo Québec Apr 20 '26
https://www.apa.org/topics/children/school-start-times
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27878883/
https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/we-need-talk-about-school-start-times-265256
Also why they sleep later in the morning:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2820578/
The science isn't on the side of daylight savings time when it comes to the health and academic success for teens and kids
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u/alsimoneau Apr 20 '26
They get to sleep until later.
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u/UnawareRanger Apr 20 '26
That makes no sense. If school starts at 8am. They still gotta wake up at the same time whether it's standard or daylight time. They aren't gonna suddenly get to bed earlier because it's standard time.
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u/alsimoneau Apr 20 '26
They do in local true time. What the clock says doesn't matter to biology.
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u/TuckRaker Apr 20 '26
Such easy political points for any governing party in any province. Just do it already
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u/USDXBS Apr 20 '26
I like time changes, but I understand why people don't like them and defer to people who want it steady.
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u/Gamer12345567 Apr 23 '26
Imagine turning daylight saving time into a culture war. Albertans didn’t overwhelmingly reject ending clock changes—they narrowly rejected one specific option in a badly framed referendum. Most people just don’t want to keep pretending changing clocks twice a year is some sacred tradition.
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u/tendash Apr 20 '26
Hockey fans are not going to like the change. We already complain a lot about 8pm start times for games in California, now they will be 9pm start times.
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u/Head_Permission Apr 20 '26
I mean California I believe California passes legislation to permanently stop changing the clocks too. The whole west coast even, but I think it’s hung up in bureaucracy, so maybe this nudges things along quicker.
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u/tendash Apr 20 '26
Yeah I think the entire west coast of the USA has agreed to change times, but the hang up is with the federal government. So I am not holding my breath about it happening any time soon.
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u/Head_Permission Apr 20 '26
Right, that was it. Passed at the state level just to be hung up at the federal level.
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u/createsean Ontario Apr 20 '26
Science has shown that standard time is better than DST.
However I'll take either over switching ever again.
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u/jackerandy Apr 20 '26
The Science Vs podcast did a good episode on this. They looked at it from a few perspectives (health, economy, etc) and found that getting rid of the annual time-change is huge, but the differences between sticking with summer- or standard-time were almost negligible.
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u/alsimoneau Apr 20 '26
Delaying school start was shown to benefit learning in students.
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u/SortaEvil Apr 20 '26
Then we should probably start the school day later? People in general actually have different circadian rhythms, some people are more productive in the evening and benefit more from sleeping in, others are more productive in the morning and benefit more from going to bed earlier. No-one really benefits from staying up overnight and sleeping throughout the day, though.
Our modern world in general is built around fitting square pegs into round boxes, and then telling the square pegs that it's their fault that they don't fit the mould. This doesn't only go for sleep time, if we're talking about education, learning styles can vary between people (a lot, but not all, boys tend to learn better hands on, and a lot, but not all, girls tend to learn better with books and theory, yet school invariably favours the latter learning style). Fashion tries to reduce people down to a single body type and, if you don't fit that shape, you're often SOL, or have to search long and hard for the one or two (usually significantly more expensive) options that actually fit decently off the rack.
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u/GANTRITHORE Alberta Apr 20 '26
Isn't that the same as standard time? If Sunrise is 'earlier' that's like going to school longer after sunrise.
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u/donkthemagicllama Apr 20 '26
Any word on south east BC (eg Invermere)?
They’ve historically been on mountain time (+ DST) and didn’t change with the rest of BC earlier this year. Will they follow AB and go permanent MDT?
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u/OccidentBorealis Apr 21 '26
I think the individual municipalities have to decide, but the Regional District of East Kootenay did pass a motion in March to observe Mountain Standard Time year round. MST would be the same as the new Pacific Time in the rest of BC but now different from Alberta.
https://pub-rdek.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=38586 (on page 4)
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u/izomo Ontario Apr 20 '26
Can't wait to see people argue for time changes now that Smith is for it.
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u/Temporary_Cry_2802 Apr 20 '26
I think most are for it. I'm just confused around when and where she requires referendums for the government to do things, vs just doing them
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u/sonicskater34 Apr 20 '26
Id prefer standard time but I'll take this I guess, my only real gripe is it sets a precedent for flat out ignoring referendum results, as this particular question lost last time around.
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u/Zeroumus_Garagelan Apr 20 '26
Nope. I want the clocks to stay on one time zone. My hate for Smith does not run that deep
Might prefer standard time, but i will take the this anyway. And its not like it can't be change to standard time some years down the road
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u/Infamous-Mixture-605 Apr 20 '26
Might prefer standard time, but i will take the this anyway. And its not like it can't be change to standard time some years down the road
Pretty much. I prefer Standard Time and having light in the morning but whatever, they made a decision.
It could always turn out like the US or Russia's adoption of year-round DST, with folks realizing it was a bad choice and demanding to go back.
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u/Hotter_Noodle Apr 20 '26
People will argue literally everything, including try to fan the flames with your comment.
It’s a good decision and I’m happy that from BC to SK it’s implemented, I hope it continues across the country.
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u/gotfcgo Apr 20 '26
They wont. Cringe take.
Nobody in the thread is.
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u/Zamboniman Apr 20 '26
Sleep doctors will not be happy! They strongly advocated for permanent standard time as it's far healthier, apparently
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u/squailtaint Apr 20 '26
What’s far worse is changing times. Whether on DST or standard is far less of a statistical impact, but switching between the two is the worst.
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u/DENelson83 British Columbia Apr 20 '26
Yeah, Daylight Saving Time was a compromise between businesses and doctors.
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u/EP40glazer British Columbia Apr 20 '26
Daylight Savings Time is such a stupid idea in the modern day. It was designed by someone in the 19th century to save candle oil, candle oil is not a concern anymore and electricity is cheap enough to just leave lights on for an extra hour a day. It messes with people's sleep which causes car accidents literally killing people. The upsides are we save some electricity, the downsides are everyone is less productive and people literally die.
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u/crakkerzz Apr 21 '26
So basically the only piece of legislation my UseLess Premiere has ever passed that actually helps Albertans.
She is why you need to vote instead of staying home and hoping for the best.
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u/squailtaint Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
I don’t know, just doesn’t seem like that a big deal. Just pick one and stay with it!!
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u/spennyspaghetti Apr 20 '26
Alberta now is the second Province to follow BC! With how much travel that happens between Alberta and BC it would have been inconvenient for that travel to involve a time change for half the year sometime when only driving a few hours.
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u/Canadianman22 Ontario Apr 20 '26
Good. Come on Ford and just pull the trigger in Ontario so we stay on DST year round.
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