In a bit surprising move the province of British Columbia (aka BeeCee) on the West Coast of Canada has announced that beginning 1 November 2026 the Province will no longer change their clocks back an hour. Effectively maintaining DST year round (GMT -8). So the usual 9 hour time difference will become 8 hours in the Winter.
I surprise because neighbouring US states of Washington, Idaho and Alaska have not signalled any intent to follow, while Alberta to the East will be one hour earlier only during the Winter.
I do support this idea but it is going to lead to lots of confusion when one jurisdiction does it alone.
We did vote on it here in Switzerland, like for almost anything. We voted no and were a time-island during 3 years. Then the Swiss government did start DST 1981, against the clear will of the people.
The EU says they want to get rid of it, it will take about a century to implement, like almost anything there…
Probably because you would leave, say, Austria at 9 am, cross into Switzerland where it’s still 8 am, then exit into one of the neighbouring countries back into the DST zone. Either the whole block changes the policy or nobody does.
Personally I enjoy the extra hour in the summer where I can get out in the evening and do some sport while it’s still light.
I enjoy the time we still have winter clock and New York has DST already, next Sunday for three weeks. I can stop “working” an hour earlier as the NYSE closes one hour earlier.
Who says they want to get rid of it? The clear will of the people? No, some loud noises. It is one of those easy targets. What exactly are the arguments against DST?
The rest of that story is that there have been numerous attempts to put it to the vote again but each time there is no appetite even to collect the requisite amount of signatures to put it to a vote. I guess it became popular and very few people want to change it.
Arizona’s been doing it for decades. They stay on Mountain Standard Time and don’t have daylight savings since 1968.
Depending on where you drive in Arizona you might have to deal with changing time zones.
" Unlike most of the United States, Arizona does not observe daylight saving time (DST), with the exception of the Navajo Nation, which does observe DST. The Hopi Reservation, which is not part of the Navajo Nation but is geographically surrounded by it, also does not observe DST.[2] For this reason, driving the length of Arizona State Route 264 east from Tuba City while DST is in place involves six time zone changes in less than 100 miles (160 km)."
Nah, up to 40-odd years later there was still no appetite (latest attempt was 2020). I think it’s pretty safe to say the majority prefer to keep DST.
Exactly, that is the downside of direct democracy. It is relatively easy for some loud voices to get a decision that in hindsight looks absurd. Ask the Brits about Brexit.
I’m pretty ambivalent to it so I’m perfectly happy to leave things as they are with the change twice a year and I’m sure there’s lots of other people who feel the same.
If they want to mess with daylight time, I would prefer they impose the same time everywhere, i.e. all countries use GMT or whatever. After all, we all use mostly the same calendar (we don’t invert December with June in australia).
Having standard time is a Very Good Thing. But although requiring all member states to adopt Standard and Daylight Saving Time was mandated by Brussels they no longer do. Member States could adobt Beijing Standard time (as all of China does) if they wanted to.
Switzerland will do what Germany does, it just makes sense.
My kids have grown up, so I don’t care about switching to the winter time anymore (having sunrise before the small kids leave home to the kindergarten was a good idea). Now I agree to have the summer time all the time, if needed.
