Clock change marks progress for some Canadians, but is a pain for others

A man rides his bike through an alley in the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany, as the sun rises on Friday, April 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Michael Probst

For some Canadians the twice-a-year changing of clocks is a welcome marker of progress through the seasons, but for many it’s just a nuisance that comes with fatigue, confused pets and even safety issues.

Daylight time began at 2 a.m. today in all provinces that observe the practice, and clocks sprung ahead by one hour. Mobile phones make the advance automatically, as long as your phone is set for a region that makes the change.

Saskatchewan and Yukon don’t observe a time change, and maintain permanent standard time.

Patricia Lakin-Thomas, a biology professor at York University, says the annual jump to daylight time has been known to increase car accidents, heart attacks and strokes.

Time regulation falls under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, and the Canadian Encyclopedia says Ottawa officially introduced daylight time in 1918 as a measure to increase wartime production.

British Columbia Premier David Eby announced last week that his province will stay on daylight time permanently and won’t be turning clocks back to rejoin standard time on Nov. 1.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government will consult on doing away with twice-a-year clock changes.

Almost five years ago, a referendum question was put to Albertans to keep daylight time year-round, but it failed by a narrow margin. The ballot offered only the option of adopting year-round daylight saving time, which Smith said might have been confusing.

She said last week she believes if you simply asked people if they want to stop changing their clocks, that would likely get overwhelming support.

In 2020, the Ontario government passed legislation to end the twice-yearly changing of clocks and make daylight time permanent — but only if Quebec and New York agreed to do the same.

In 2022, Atlantic Canada’s premiers decided to hold off on any move toward dropping the time change until they saw what neighbouring jurisdictions would do.