No. The time changes show us how time is a construct and how we as a society can make collective decisions that alter our reality.
All of the alternatives to our current system have their own problems, there is no perfect solution. Design is about finding a compromise that works the least ungood and I think the time change is that.
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
Yes, setting clocks twice a year is artificial stupidity.
I live in Saskatchewan, so I already don't change my clocks at all and I can say with certainty that it is better this way! Please stop changing your clocks!
I found out that Saskatchewan is on permanent Daylight time (more evening sun) which is, by most studies, the 'worse' option. However, it is still better than changing the clocks and once you stop the flip-flop, it is so much better.
Also from Saskatchewan, lived in Alberta for a few years. I have literally never in my life had a moment where I wished Sask did time changes, and found it stressful and annoying every time it happened while living elsewhere.
Stop changing your clocks! Good job BC, I hope you start some dominoes!
Came here to say the same thing.
When the whole time zone and DST were being introduced it is my understanding that it was “because the cows wouldn’t understand why they were being fed an hour early or later depending on the time of the year.”
Here is to the livestock for saving people from the week of more car accidents and heart attacks!
SK doesn’t get many things right, but not observing DST is one of them.
@FlareHeart if it’s the worse option then I wonder why everywhere keeps going for it (BC and the Yukon too). My guess is that it’s partially for economic reasons. Most people are out and about in the evening, so by allowing for an extra hour of sunlight in the evening you open the window of time when people will engage in economic activities. This could have indirect health benefits through increased employment or something, who knows.
I'm not sure. I know that due to our position and lack of sunlight, most Canadians are deficient in vitamin D, so I supplement for that anyway. But I love not having to change my clocks. One hour's shift of what little sunlight we get in the winter doesn't matter IMO. Just stop flip-flopping!
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
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!
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.
Why is there no discussion on splitting the difference and changing time zones by half an hour? If Newfoundland can survive being half an hour off from its neighbors there shouldn't be any arguments against it.
@loonmusic this is a good idea. Especially since I can see both sides of the argument here. Standard time is apparently better for our health but having an extra hour in the evening with daylight time could be good for the economy extend the window of time when people go out and do things. It may even prevent crime in the same way that proper street lighting prevents crime. So splitting the difference Newfoundland style seems like a good compromise.
I'm in BC and I'm glad we're not doing the changes again. That said, I do wish we stuck with standard time instead, but I'll get used to it.
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.
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.
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 )
_ /\ _
Hate the time changes as much as anybody else, get rid of them, but only if we get Standard Time from it and do away with DST entirely.
When we had the vote in Alberta to change to permanent Daylight Savings Time, I voted against the idea. I understand that it's better than changing the clocks at all, but it makes no sense to me whatsoever to basically change our timezone and stick with Daylight Savings permanently when we should be getting rid of it entirely.
I'd rather keep the flip-flop so that the option to do away with DST entirely remains on the table in the future. In my mind, it's a lot more likely that another vote appears to get rid of the flip-flop with going to Standard Time as an option than it is for us to get rid of the flip-flop and have a vote getting rid of permanent DST in favour of Standard Time.
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
Apparently I'm the only person in the country who doesn't find the seasonal time changing to be problematic.
I like having the extra sunshine hours in the summer evenings, and having sunrise come a bit sooner in the winter. And I've never personally experienced any dramatically negative effects on the days when the time changes.
Same. I usually don’t notice until I get in the car and the clock is an hour off.
You are lucky then. I have trouble sleeping even on good days. Losing 1 hour of sleep that I already have trouble getting is majorly problematic for me.
I am sure the people with the increased amount of car accidents and heart attacks care.
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