Want to stop moving clocks back? Get behind Standard Time

Clocks will be turned back one hour in most of B.C. Sunday morning (officially at 2 a.m.) as the years-long debate about staying on Daylight Saving Time drags on.

That’s despite a survey in the summer of 2020 that found the majority of B.C. residents want to stay on Daylight Saving Time and the government passed legislation to make that happen.

But it came with the catch that Western states in the U.S. also have to make the change. California, despite Proposition 7 — a referendum that passed in 2018 to stick to Daylight Saving Time — didn’t manage to get it done.

READ MORE: Blame the California Senate when B.C. turns clocks back on Nov. 1

The reality is, however, even if California legislators said yes it still requires the approval of their federal government under the Uniform Time Act that was passed in 1966.

Since 2015, at least 350 bills and resolutions have been introduced involving almost all U.S. states to keep Daylight Savings Time, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures website.

Most were not passed. Florida became the first state to pass such legislation in 2018, but only if the federal law was changed.

In the past four years, 18 other states have approved similar laws and still nothing has changed.

The Uniform Time Act doesn’t prevent states from staying on Standard Time, which Hawaii and most of Arizona did in the late 1960s, after the Act was passed.

Canada does not have federal control over time zones.

Saskatchewan got rid of Daylight Saving Time in 1909 while the Yukon decided to stay permanently on Daylight Saving Time last year.

The Peace River area of B.C. stays on Standard Time year-round but, since it’s in the Mountain Time Zone, it’s out of synch with the rest of B.C. for half the year.

Cranbrook is also on Mountain Time but switches to match Alberta’s Daylight Saving Time. Creston residents don’t change their clocks so are currently in sync with most of B.C.

On Oct. 18, 50.2% of Albertans voted no on a referendum to stay on Daylight Saving Time.

Part of the debate there, and elsewhere, centred around the health benefits of sticking to Standard Time versus Daylight Saving Time.

Health issues apart, if B.C. residents really want to stop fiddling with time twice a year and if we’re going to hitch our wagon to the Western U.S., it would be much simpler for Americans to adopt permanent Standard Time so B.C. can follow suit.

Daylight Savings Time returns on March 13, 2022.

READ MORE: Golfing in the evening inspiration for Daylight Savings Time

– This article was corrected Nov. 6, 2021, to say Daylight Savings Time returns March 13, not Standard Time.

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