Hello darkness my old friend.
Most British Columbians are once again getting ready for daylight saving time to end in the province, meaning clocks will fall back an hour this weekend.
On Sunday, Nov. 2, at 2 a.m. clocks will fall backwards an hour to 1 a.m.
That means people will get one extra hour of sleep this weekend, and wake up to light earlier in the mornings, but evenings will get darker earlier as well.
The seasonal time change happens on the first Sunday of every November, and this year the first Sunday falls particularly early on the calender.
Why are we still doing this?
B.C.’s bi-annual time change has long been a controversial topic for residents.
In 2019, the B.C. government launched an online survey asking if the province should ditch the time change and keep a permanent DST.
A whopping 93 per cent of respondents said they wanted to end the time change, and later that year the NDP government passed legislation to make daylight saving time permanent – but only if the neighbouring U.S. states of Washington, Oregon and California did the same, with the province saying it was important to keep the same local times as these trading partners.
Any chance of the province getting rid of the time change seems to have stalled, as changes in those U.S. states have also remained in limbo, and as Canada faces a trade war with the United States.
In March, when British Columbians were getting to “spring forward” for the year, B.C. Premier David Eby said he would mull the idea of switching to permanent DST.
“It is open to the new world that we’re in, that we stand on our own two feet as a province, in relation to everything, including time zones. I’ll ponder that one,” he said when asked at an unrelated news conference on March 5.
Recently, Ottawa-area MP Marie-France Lalonde also called for a country-wide end to daylight saving time.
RELATED: Liberal MP says it’s time to stop the clock on daylight time
The practice of changing clocks twice a year in Canada started in 1918 as a way to increase wartime production.
Not all communities in the country follow the practice, however. In 2020, Yukon ditched daylight time after public consultation.
Most communities in Saskatchewan also observe a single time year round, while some communities in northeastern B.C. also do not change their clocks.
With files from CHEK’s Mackenzie Read
