How about we remove all the clocks altogether, then we'd be forever in the dark as to what time it is!
Mainland China spans more than 60 degrees of longitude and covers five geographic time zones, yet the entire country is officially on a single clock. The key word is "officially." While all government business, transportation and communications use Beijing time, many residents operate on an unofficial local time for their daily lives.
^ I would probably find that very confusing.
If memory serves - alas I've just returned the library book that when into detail on this - originally the spring equinox was April 1, which was also the new year. (This is why government fiscal years start on All Fool's Day.) I don't remember why the new year moved, but the equinox moved because the Julian calendar was wrong and didn't have enough days in it.
As for the topic at hand: a decade ago Alberta ran a referrendum on permanent DST and it failed, and a lot of us ranted about not being given the option for permanent standard time. Here's the thing: in December you're not seeing the sun anyway. Well, I do, but that's because of my job. I drive a school bus. The kids are at school before sunrise and get on again after sunset. (I'm in Edmonton.) Moving those times by an hour won't matter, it'll just make it hard to drive.
In the summer, DST means sunset is after 11. That makes Canada Day a very late night, and means people are rampaging around being idiots much, much later. Meanwhile, the sun is up before me either way. I'd far rather have sunset be at a reasonable time so I can go to bed. Also, there's apparently evidence that having mid-day be at the middle of the day is actually good for you. Just set the clock so 12 is Noon and be done with it.
Of course, we could go REALLY old school and go back to "every day has 12 hours from sunrise to sunset." They just end up different lengths as the year progresses.
It was super close though, wasn’t it? OK, I just looked it up: 50.24% against, versus 49.76% for. Talk about a close one!
Interestingly, by next week, both your neighbouring provinces on the east and west will be (mostly) on permanent DST. Do you think the referendum results would be different if they asked the same question this year?
I don't like Daylight Savings Time or the process of changing the clocks twice a year. I never did. It was something I always felt very passionate about abolishing. As of right now I don't have that strong of an opinion on Permanent DST or Permanent Standard Time. I haven't looked much into the benefits of either or at the moment (it has been a great while since I've thought of DST anyway), so anyone is free to tell me what exactly the difference would be between the two.
I do remember that I was told once that changing the clocks is like cutting the bottom of a blanket off and sewing it on the top and saying that it is a longer blanket.
I do remember that I was told once that changing the clocks is like cutting the bottom of a blanket off and sewing it on the top and saying that it is a longer blanket.
The US states of Hawaii and Arizona don't observe Daylight Saving Time and stay on standard time all year. California voters have opted to keep DST all year, but require the state senate to approve it by 2/3 vote and the US Congress to approve, if they would choose instead to join AZ and HI and stay on standard time year round, they wouldn't need approval of the US Congress, just the state senate.
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That's been my key factor. I need it to be dark outside for at least an hour or so before I can go to sleep. Even when I lived not nearly as far north as Canada, I hated the summer and the sun not going down until after 9 sometimes. The worst was one time after I'd flown west, so I was jet-lagged. I remember being bone tired and trying to sleep at 7, knowing the sun was still going to be up for two more endless hours.
Anyway, that's my solution, everyone should live closer to the equator do day-length doesn't change that much over the course of the year, anyway.
Notice, if you will; not a single vote for KEEPING DST....hmmm...
Because the entire world is America...
@Avro Arrow : I have no idea what would happen if they asked the question today. There's a lot more "not from here" folks in the province these days, and it's hard to predict how that's changing things. There's also a lot of knee-jerk reactions on both sides of the spectrum. A time change positioned as "aligning with BC" would get a lot of push-back from the far right and the separatists. A time change positioned as "screwing Ottawa" would get support from parts of the right, push-back from those (right or left) that know separation is stupid (there isn't really a collective name for them because that's not a coherent movement, it's just opposition to the separatists) and push-back from the left simply because it aligns with Smith's core message. Alberta politics is rapidly heading to the same kind of tribalism as American politics; though there's some interesting signs that Carney is managing to bridge that, at least at the Federal level.
No idea as to other areas of the world or other countries using DST. Any provinces in Canada that are not using it?Because the entire world is America...
@Avro Arrow : I have no idea what would happen if they asked the question today. There's a lot more "not from here" folks in the province these days, and it's hard to predict how that's changing things. There's also a lot of knee-jerk reactions on both sides of the spectrum. A time change positioned as "aligning with BC" would get a lot of push-back from the far right and the separatists. A time change positioned as "screwing Ottawa" would get support from parts of the right, push-back from those (right or left) that know separation is stupid (there isn't really a collective name for them because that's not a coherent movement, it's just opposition to the separatists) and push-back from the left simply because it aligns with Smith's core message. Alberta politics is rapidly heading to the same kind of tribalism as American politics; though there's some interesting signs that Carney is managing to bridge that, at least at the Federal level.
Really?
The entire point of the thread is that B.C. just stopped switching clocks.
I can't think of another sentence that isn't picking a fight, so I'm just going to stop now.
Saskatchewan doesn't use it. It stays permanently on Standard Time. And then because Newfoundlanders are a bit weird, they have their own little time zone to themselves making them a half hour out of step with everyone else.
I like the idea of moving to Daylight time permanently, but there is a bit of an advantage of moving to Standard time. It got dark around 6:00 PM last night where I was, so days were progressively getting longer. However, Arizona is already on permanent Daylight time (From my point of view) so what, they just make Arizona part of the mountain time zone. I think it's a little too close to California for that.
There was a vote in California a few years ago to do something with Daylight savings time. Whatever came of that.
There was a vote in California a few years ago to do something with Daylight savings time. Whatever came of that.
Really DST should be abolished everywhere. Nobody likes it, and I have never once met anyone who does.
This is actually a bit of a misnomer. Saskatchewan calls their time zone "Central Standard Time", because they do align their clocks year-round with UTC-6, the same as Central Standard does. However, if you look at a time zone map from before they dropped the clock-switching, they were in Mountain Time, and Mountain Daylight Time is also UTC-6. So although they call it "Standard", when Saskatchewan dropped the clock changes, they really stayed on permanent daylight time.
(Note that I am generalizing for the majority of the province. There was actually a small section at the eastern end of the province that was in Central Time prior to 1966, so from the perspective of people living in that region, it would have been adopting permanent standard time. But for the great majority of the province by area (and I believe also by population, although I haven't confirmed that), they are on permanent daylight time.)
Every Canadian jurisdiction that has stopped the clock changes (Saskatchewan, BC, Yukon), has (again, mostly) adopted permanent daylight time. Ontario's law on the books to stop the clock changes if and when Quebec and New York ever do, is also for permanent daylight time.
Judging from the poll here, permanent daylight time seems to be more popular in Canada than it is elsewhere.
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