No More Time Change For British Columbia

Matt Cundill  0:01  
You may also like a show about the things you may also like things like the end of standard time in British Columbia, way back in November of 2019, I had Tara Holmes on my show to talk about her campaign for the province of BC to stop changing the clock between standard and daylight time twice a year. I laughed at it. Well, on March 2 of 2026 it was announced that when British Columbians set their clocks forward to daylight savings time, they're going to leave them there. I would have thought that the original campaign would have been thrown into the scrap heap, but it turns out that it outlasted the podcast that Tara first appeared on with me back in the day, I had a show called the hot air podcast. That show has been rebranded into this one. But like any good audio hoarder, I don't throw much away, and it's for moments like this. What follows is the original interview from 2019 as you can hear in the tone of my voice, I was not a believer. Have I changed my mind? I'll let you know at the end of the show. Twice a year, many in North America change their clocks forward an hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall. Does anyone know why we do this? Let's blame Benjamin Franklin in 1784 it was Ben Franklin who came up with this idea. Later. It was proposed in British Parliament by William Willett in 1907 however, it wasn't until 1966 that it sort of became a thing. Daylight Saving Time was practiced during World War One and World War Two, you know, to save money, because if we could take advantage of longer daylight hours and save energy, we could build more warheads. Later, it was provinces and states and communities they would decide what to do with the clocks, whether they wanted to continue to observe daylight saving time and when to do so, this meant that some cities were an hour behind others, even though they were only separated by a few miles on the map, which all seems kind of crazy by today's standards. In 1966 the United States Congress passed the uniform Time Act that standardized the length of daylight saving time for the country, but not really, because, like Arizona and Hawaii, they didn't participate. And Saskatchewan, no, they didn't participate in Canada either. Since then, leaders have tinkered and messed with it, extending it for a few weeks here and a few weeks there. And every year there seems to be a call to get rid of it altogether. But some people just want to stay on Standard Time, and others want to keep it daylight saving all the time. Personally, I think it's all fine where it is. I'm not too fussed about the clocks going back and forth, so long as I can enjoy my summer evenings with lots of daylight. But I did speak to somebody who wants to put an end to it in their part of the world. Tara Holmes is from Kamloops, British Columbia, and heads up a group called stop the time change. I reached out to her in Kamloops, and yes, this is the same Tara Holmes, the matchmaker that we spoke to back in episode 18. So why are you so passionate about stopping the time change?

Tara Holmes  3:20  
It certainly seems like such a weird thing to be passionate about and but what I found out, though, even though there's two of us that started this stop the time change movement that is way, way bigger than we ever imagined. I don't know if you heard but British Columbia government, our premier, put out a survey courtesy of the government, just to see what the British Columbians were feeling. And would you believe it was the top responded to survey in the history of government surveys on this topic, even more so than cannabis. So obviously, just the two of us here in Kamloops, we're on to something. What'd the survey say? 93% of those surveyed, and there was 223,000 British Columbians. And let's face it, people don't like filling out surveys, so people are pretty passionate about it. 93% of those surveyed chose to stay permanently on Daylight Time, which we are on now, until tonight, when we fall back. But 93% of them,

Matt Cundill  4:23  
but they also prefaced it that I think I saw 68% would really just want to do it if California and some of your neighboring states did as well, right?

Tara Holmes  4:33  
So there seems to be a lot of interest in what those states are doing. They did have votes as well. Their numbers were also extremely substantial, like 92 to six in in one of them, I think Washington State, they're in a different situation. So even though they're moving towards this, they have to get approval from Congress, whereas our premier, Mr. Horgan, does not need approval from anyone. Now that he's submitted the legislation, he basically. Has the power to stop it anytime now, like he just has to pull the pin on it. It happens. I mean, obviously Congress is in the middle of something there, like they're trying to impeach a president. So they've got a few bigger things on their plate right now, but it's not going to take long for them, because when, when Congress sees the numbers, they'll probably just put their signature down and say, go for it. So, but we have a year. We have a year for all this to happen, because the plan is we're falling back tonight. We spring forward in 2020, and if all goes according to what we're hearing, we won't ever have to fall back again. Why is that helpful? Oh, for a lot of reasons. Well, first of all, when we first started this stop the time change movement, that's exactly what it's worded. It stopped the time change. It's not, it's not saying, you know, stay on standard or save daylight. We just knew that we wanted the time change to stop. We didn't care where it stopped, because the biannual all these years, changing the clocks twice a year. It's unnecessary. First of all, there's no need for it, and it's also very dangerous for health, for safety, those with mental health. And we found out some really amazing statistics, that the Monday after the spring forward, there's a really big increase in heart attacks. I have no idea why. And the Monday after the fall back, the spike in accidents that week after when darkness is thrown upon you, there's pedestrian incidents. There's all sorts of accidents. Ask any parent with young children, and it's a nightmare. They don't know that they get an extra hour sleep tonight. Animals. I mean, this all seems little, but in the big lifestyle picture, most people just want it to stop, especially because there's no need for it. Also, people used to think that it saved money, and that's what we were doing it for. Originally, they thought it was for farming, but we know Saskatchewan doesn't touch their clocks, and they're a farming province. Cows do not care what time it is, but they did some studies and with hydro to see if it really does save energy. And guess what? They found, changing the clocks twice a year costs. So there's so many reasons to stop it.

Matt Cundill  6:59  
Let's say you don't make the time change and just stay where you are right now, your New Year's Day is going to look like a 901, wake up and a 505 sunset, which doesn't really seem too bad, I think, for New Year's Day. So who are the people who would be against this, and what have they said to you?

Tara Holmes  7:18  
So one thing that we all know that we're in agreement on is that the time change should stop that, that everyone pretty much agrees on that. And like I say, that the substantial amount of people who want it to be on daylight, you know, exceeds those that want it to be on standard. But there are those people that are realists, and they know that the original time was standard. And there's some sleep experts who suggest the circadian rhythm would be disrupted, therefore we need some of that light in the morning. So those are the a small percentage, a minority people of amount of people who who really feel we should stay with the standard time and again. We we're fine with wherever it lands. I honestly think that when the time change stops, everyone will adjust.

Matt Cundill  8:04  
Well, you've got California, they really want to be on standard time all year round if they were to make a change, but people in BC want to be on the daylight saving time all year round. So what do you hear from them in the neighboring states?

Tara Holmes  8:17  
Well, you know, and one thing that I think that our premier, John Horgan, has done correctly, is he's done the survey. He's done a lot of public consultation. He went up to the Yukon and spoke to the premier there. He's been in continual communication with Jay Inslee, the government governor of Washington State. Of course, there's Oregon and California along the coast there, and California did vote actually for daylight several years ago. So they've kind of been going back and forth. And the way I see it is BC and Alberta are right next door to each other. We do business with each other, we trade we continue to do that, even though there's one hour difference. So I don't think the one hour difference or a two hour difference is going to stop trading partners from doing business with each other. Business is done 24/7 now, so I don't think it really is going to be that big of a deal. It's just one of those things that once everything gets in sync and we realize, Okay, how many hours behind Toronto are we what's going on here? I mean, there's places in BC right now, up north in Fort St John, in the Peace region, who don't observe the time change. I was just talking to a friend who moved from Kamloops up to Fort St John. She loves that they don't observe their time. She does business with people in Prince George, and now she's realizing, oh no, I've got to change my meeting times next week, as Prince George is changing their time,

Matt Cundill  9:39  
it seems really weird that, let's say there's a town between BC and Alberta, one town is going to be two hours ahead of the other. That seems odd.

Tara Holmes  9:46  
Yeah, you know, I'll tell you what else is odd in BC right now, Creston and Cranbrook are like, right next door to each other, and they're one hour difference. And so if you're making a doctor appointment and you go for a little drive. They're one hour difference. So yeah, those, those kind of things happen, but I what I feel is going to happen, and I know Alberta tried to do this. Saskatchewan doesn't touch their clocks, and Manitoba was tabling this, and Ontario is in conversation on this. I think that once there's a leader in this, once a province stops the time change, the rest of the country will follow. They're just all sort of waiting for someone to sort of initiate it. And I think by us starting the conversation, putting in legislation, letting everyone wrap their heads around it, I think it gives everyone some time to sort of think, oh, okay, so this is how it's going to be. I mean, remember when smoking in bars was a thing, and they started talking about banning it, and bar owners were up in arms saying they were going to close down, and everything ended up just fine. And it's the same thing with the time change. When I think, if you consult with places that maybe had a referendum and then stop the time change, see how it went, like, what were some of the things that had to be worked out, we're never going to be able to please everybody, and there are going to be adjustments. But overall, I mean, I think that most people, and you see it if you do any online poll, and you look at it through all the media companies that do these polls, when they do their stories twice a year, everybody doesn't. They're tired of the time change. We don't need it anymore.

Matt Cundill  11:12  
I see how you're selling it as progress, and congratulations for that, but you won't get me involved into this fight unless you put, say, standard time into my backyard in Manitoba, where, in the summer, I would have a 419 wake up with the sun. That would be my tee off time at 419 in the morning, and we'd be ending our baseball games at 841 at night, as opposed to 941 right now, that seems stupid. No, I'm telling you now that is stupid. You want me to get out of bed at four in the morning to start my day in the sunshine, maybe tee off. That's my tee off time. And then, and then we have kids outside. By the way, kids are getting fatter all the time. We always say they should be outside playing. And all of a sudden, now we're going to institute something in Standard Time, and we got to call the baseball game at 841, versus 941, for for baseball and solid. That's but that's not progress.

Tara Holmes  12:10  
That's a good point. And, and here's that, there's, here's what. I know that. What when people say that, the experts, who have the smaller sort of percentage that say, Oh, we want the kids to have some light in the morning, as opposed to light later. So what the interesting thing of that is, I'm like, What parent do you know that sends their kids out to play in the morning before school? Oh, go out there and get that vitamin D. Let's get out and get some light before school. That does not happen. Parents are like, get out of bed. Get your breakfast eaten. Let's get your homework. Get your backpacks. We got to get you out the door. They get out the door, they get to school. And then the idea is, you want the kids to have the light later after school, so they can get out there. They can play. They can enjoy the light, and they don't have to walk home in the dark, which is much more dangerous. Walking home in the dark after school due to the fact that there's distracted drivers and kids walk home at different times, by the way, after school, they're between 330 and 6pm they might have basketball, choir, debate club, so they're walking home. The drivers are after their long day of work. They're distracted. They're suddenly in darkness. It's way riskier. Is when kids go to school in the morning, it's at the same time, and when drivers go to work, they're at their best after their night's sleep, and their phones aren't buzzing off. So, you know, I mean, I see the I see both sides and like I say, I don't care where it ends. I just know it's gotta end, whether it's on standard or whether it's on daylight. And you talk to the people who don't observe the time change, they laugh at us. They think it's quite hilarious. So in Alberta, there's a couple of men who've been working on this for over 50 years, David, Dave Matthews and Bill Creighton. Are a couple of guys who have been on this for a very, very long time. It's just, there's people who are working this for a long time.

Matt Cundill  13:54  
Well, I think we should clarify, no kids walk to school

Speaker 1  13:57  
ever anymore, exactly, exactly, you know.

Matt Cundill  14:00  
And I can see like there was an argument in the 70s and 80s, and perhaps in the early 90s, where sending your kid to school in the dark. Listen, kids used to get abducted at higher rates than they do today. There's way less crime with this stuff. So every kid's now getting a ride in their bubble wrapped car to where they need to go. So I do see that side of it. And I do think that light later in the day is much better than, you know, light earlier in the morning. But over my dead body, are you bringing standard time to Manitoba? I just, I can't, I can't justify losing the light at night, you know, for the baseball and the soccer and the activities that go on, and having the sun wake up in my face at 4:19am,

Tara Holmes  14:44  
and I don't know where Manitoba has been on there they they were doing a vote like I don't know where they're at the moment on it, because I've obviously been so busy here in BC, but I I'd like to find out where they're, where they're because, you know, the European Union has voted to stop their time change. Turkey abolished. Their time change about four years ago. It's hard to keep up, because there's a lot of states that there was one state many years ago, Indiana who tried it, brought in the time change just to test how it was with the cost of the energy. So there's all sorts of testing that are going on, and there's experts out there, like we're not experts as far as the sleep, the circadian rhythms and a workplace productivity. But boy, oh boy. There are some doctors and educators and scientists who've done thesis studies on this topic, and we're learning as we go. But overall, I think the one thing that everybody agrees on is that it's an unnecessary tradition. So what do we do about it? Well, we stop the time change, and then we see how it goes.

Matt Cundill  15:43  
Don't you think this would cause a little bit of personal hell for anybody who is developing software at Microsoft or Apple?

Tara Holmes  15:50  
That's a really, really good point. And that is one thing that actually has not come up in this. Because, okay, well, here's the thing. It was, I think it was 2007 when the United States decided, oh, let's just change when we change the time. Let's add a couple months on here. Because if you remember the time change, you know, was pretty broken down even, and now it's not, you know, like they just said, oh, let's just change it by that time. And Canada followed suit. Canada said, Oh, okay, well, let's do what they do. And so that was changed. So obviously, those software developers are pretty innovative, and it wouldn't be much for them to just change up whatever that they're building. I mean, obviously, you know, setting up my podcast today was hard enough. I'm obviously not a tech person, but I do know that there's certainly aptitude to be able to make those changes. They did it before.

Matt Cundill  16:39  
Yeah, no, absolutely. And George Bush did some of that as well, and it was under the premise of saving electricity, and it actually went up 1% Oh, and by the way, you did mention a private member's bill that was tabled here in Manitoba. It died on the vine.

Tara Holmes  16:54  
Right, right, yeah. And that's what happens. Sometimes people go about these things, you know, the wrong way. And public consultation is so important find out how people are feeling right?

Matt Cundill  17:04  
I think they're feeling tired from the time change. Well, Tara, best of luck on the endeavors to create a little time change or no time change in British Columbia.

Tara Holmes  17:16  
Thank you so much. It was great chatting to you, Matt. Have a great day.

Matt Cundill  17:20  
Maybe we can't all agree about what to do about the time. Do we change it? Believe it? Which one do we go with? Do we go with the standard or the daylight saving but maybe one thing we could all get behind is radio host tracks at C, K and W in Vancouver. He's tired of people calling it daylight savings time instead of its proper name, daylight saving time. You know, the most annoying thing here is, is everyone slapping an S on the end of daylight saving. It's not pluralized. It's not daylight savings time. It's daylight savings singular, non plural time. Daylight Saving. Don't put an S on the end of it. It drives me crazy. As soon as I hear someone in a story about daylight saving, daylight savings, I'm like, You're there's no credibility to you. Get the hell out of here. I think people, when they pluralize it, they're thinking they're getting more savings passed on to them. My sister does it too. Let's go to subways and get a sandwich. No, let's not go to subways. Let's go to Subway and maybe we can do the same thing. All right, let's head up to the kfcs. Why is there more than one of them? Are they? Are they next to each other? They're 20 stores. Are they? Are they competing star boxes? Is we're starting to tangent. All right, no more, no more. Pluralizing, please. It's daylight, singular saving time. Nothing more, nothing less. Give it a red hot rest. Now that's something I think we can all get behind. So there you have it. My congrats to Tara and her team for making this happen. I must admit, Tara has gotten me thinking about doing away with all that clock changing. One thing I have not moved on, though, is the idea of being on standard time for a whole year. No thanks. I can do without the sun rising in the 4am hour, and I really like seeing the sunset late at night, but year round daylight savings time. Okay, I'll try it. My thanks to Evan cerminsky for producing this episode, and to Mary Tracy Paulo, who is going to have to find a way to promote this episode, which is made for you by everyone at the sound off media company, a production of the sound off media company you.