Yesterday I called out Manitoba's recent decision not to change back to standard time 44 days from now, following British Columbia and Alberta making the same poor decision earlier this summer. IANA's Tim Parenti called the Manitoba government, who "could not see any record of the proclamation bringing the Act into force having yet been made." This means not only was it a dumb decision, but it's being implemented in a way guaranteed to cause chaos in November.
The CBC had an explainer yesterday that included maps of how confusing the Canadian time zone regime will be this winter:
Had Manitoba opted for standard time year-round, it would have synced up with the other Prairie provinces. [Manitoba Premier Wab] Kinew previously pitched a "Prairie time zone" in April, saying permanent standard time could benefit interprovincial trade.
In May, Manitoba launched a survey to ask the public to weigh in the issue. For those who did want to see the twice-annual changes halted, the survey asked if they preferred to stay on standard or daylight time.
On Thursday, the province said nearly 72,000 votes were submitted in its survey, with 92 per cent of respondents saying they wanted to see an end to seasonal time changes. Among respondents, 58 per cent preferred permanent daylight time and 34 per cent sided with standard time.
Inna Rabinovich-Nikitin, an assistant professor with the University of Manitoba's department of physiology and pathophysiology, says moving to permanent daylight is not the right decision for people's health.
"Our body has an internal circadian clock … and when we're moving to daylight savings time, it doesn't align with the light and dark cycles outside, and that basically makes us feel like we're always jet-lagged," she said.
Look, I love Canada, and I am impressed by how they've handled all the nonsense coming across their southern border. (Seriously, Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech to the European Parliament yesterday was a barnburner.) But when they get things wrong, they really get things wrong. For any jurisdiction above 40 degrees north latitude to permanently set their clocks a full hour ahead of their natural meridian is almost as bad as Toronto unifying, the main difference being that it's a lot easier to undo the clock absurdity than to restore viable public transit options to Etobicoke.
But hey, experience is a wonderful instructor, and I think come January, a lot of Canadians will be rethinking their time zone choices.
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