Canadians are changing their clocks tonight as much of the country prepares to spring forward for daylight time. The change happens for most of the country at 2 a.m. local time. Yukon and most of Sask...
Lots of states and provinces are already aligned, afaik once it passes the US house and Biden signs it, Canada tags along and we all spring forward forever, which would be amazing IMO
Why would you not want perma DST? If you live in Ontario or Quebec, having one more hour of daylight in the afternoon is much better than sunrise an hour earlier.
Lack of sunlight in the afternoon also has a major health impact, especially for children. A sunset during winter solstice at 4PM would turn into 5PM, allowing them to have one more hour of daylight that is not spent indoors in a school building anyway.
There are actual health recommendations based on solar time. For example, we are cautioned to be especially careful of summer sun exposure between 10 am and 2 pm. As far as I know, that makes sense only in the context of solar time: the 2 hours on either side of when the sun is at it highest (solar noon.)
Unless there is something about the actual timing of the risk I don’t understand, under DST the recommendation should be “between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm.”
Where I am, in Saskatchewan, my local time is about 1.5 hours distant from solar time. Thus, that recommendation should be “between 11:30 am and 3:30 pm,” although I suspect 11-3 is close enough.
That would require a lot more timezones. Solar noon fluctuates by an hour depending on which side of the same time zone you’re in, and that’s not even considering all the timezones that are offset for geographical convenience.
The sun is at the highest when the sun is at the highest. It’s called the solar noon. If you are in Thunder Bay, it happens arouns 1PM EST/2PM EDT. If you are in Gaspé, it happens around 11:20 EST/12:20 EDT.
See how much binding the timezone to a specific shift doesn’t make sense based on your arbitrary metric?
All that means is that the layout of the time zones is stupid. Noon is noon, and my opinion is that clock noon should be as close to solar noon as possible.
or we should eliminate time zones entirely and use a single clock time worldwide.
If we eliminated DST for the summer, or would not have permanent DST, we’d need to change culture to not have 9-5 banking/office work days but rather 8-4, 7-3 or 6-2, similar to how the trades already work.
I truly do not care even one little bit about whether it stays on daylight time or standard time, I just want to never have to perform this absurd little ritual ever again.
Having lived in both the States and Canada, this is actually very untrue. Canada is SOOOO different. Yes, we import polarized opinions from the States, and yes they are our biggest trade partner, but we are still EXTREMELY different.
Look at how we handled the pandemic. Per person, our rate was 1/10th as bad.
Look at how we handle mass shootings. Healthcare. Diversity. Climate. Public spaces.
We may have similarities, and our crazies are influenced by their crazies, but we are very very separate countries.
I wish we could spring forward forever!
Lots of states and provinces are already aligned, afaik once it passes the US house and Biden signs it, Canada tags along and we all spring forward forever, which would be amazing IMO
Not as good as just staying on standard time forever but better than flip-flopping all the time
Why would you not want perma DST? If you live in Ontario or Quebec, having one more hour of daylight in the afternoon is much better than sunrise an hour earlier.
Perma DST would mean really dark mornings in the winter, and the lack of sunlight in the morning has major health impacts, especially for teens.
Lack of sunlight in the afternoon also has a major health impact, especially for children. A sunset during winter solstice at 4PM would turn into 5PM, allowing them to have one more hour of daylight that is not spent indoors in a school building anyway.
You realize that the amount of daylight does not change, right? The important thing to me is that noon should be as close to midday as possible.
Why is that important?
There are actual health recommendations based on solar time. For example, we are cautioned to be especially careful of summer sun exposure between 10 am and 2 pm. As far as I know, that makes sense only in the context of solar time: the 2 hours on either side of when the sun is at it highest (solar noon.)
Unless there is something about the actual timing of the risk I don’t understand, under DST the recommendation should be “between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm.”
Where I am, in Saskatchewan, my local time is about 1.5 hours distant from solar time. Thus, that recommendation should be “between 11:30 am and 3:30 pm,” although I suspect 11-3 is close enough.
That would require a lot more timezones. Solar noon fluctuates by an hour depending on which side of the same time zone you’re in, and that’s not even considering all the timezones that are offset for geographical convenience.
Because that’s the definition of noon…
That’s very arbitrary.
The sun is at the highest when the sun is at the highest. It’s called the solar noon. If you are in Thunder Bay, it happens arouns 1PM EST/2PM EDT. If you are in Gaspé, it happens around 11:20 EST/12:20 EDT.
See how much binding the timezone to a specific shift doesn’t make sense based on your arbitrary metric?
All that means is that the layout of the time zones is stupid. Noon is noon, and my opinion is that clock noon should be as close to solar noon as possible.
or we should eliminate time zones entirely and use a single clock time worldwide.
Eliminating time zones would be pretty amazing.
If we eliminated DST for the summer, or would not have permanent DST, we’d need to change culture to not have 9-5 banking/office work days but rather 8-4, 7-3 or 6-2, similar to how the trades already work.
I truly do not care even one little bit about whether it stays on daylight time or standard time, I just want to never have to perform this absurd little ritual ever again.
The fact that we have to wait until America gets its act together is frustrating. They can’t even pass a simple bill like this.
STICKING TO ONE TIME ZONE IS WOKE!!!
/s for those who need it.
We are an economic state of the USA. Don’t believe me? Look at our politicians over the past 20 years.
Having lived in both the States and Canada, this is actually very untrue. Canada is SOOOO different. Yes, we import polarized opinions from the States, and yes they are our biggest trade partner, but we are still EXTREMELY different.
Look at how we handled the pandemic. Per person, our rate was 1/10th as bad.
Look at how we handle mass shootings. Healthcare. Diversity. Climate. Public spaces.
We may have similarities, and our crazies are influenced by their crazies, but we are very very separate countries.