Daylight saving time in Canada will start this weekend

As a result of Daylight Saving Time, the clocks in Ontario and most of Canada will move forward one hour at 2 a.m. this Sunday. The longest day of the year will be June 21. On November 6, 2022, the hands on the clock will move back an hour again.

The annual daylight saving time is a Canadian tradition that dates back to 1908 in 2 small Ontario towns, called Port Arthur and Fort William, which have since merged to form the city of Thunder Bay. This was done to give the population an extra "light hour." This custom soon spread to other towns across the country. Then, in an effort to conserve energy during World War I, the law was enacted nationally. For good, the practice returned during World War II.

There are a few places in Canada that do not switch to daylight saving time every 2 years at all or are considering doing away with the practice. In November 2020, the Ontario government passed a bill to eliminate the 2-year clock change, making daylight saving time in the province permanent. Although the bill received royal assent, the lieutenant governor still hasn't proclaimed it to take effect. The fact is that its commencement has been made dependent on the American state of New York and the Canadian province of Quebec. They all have close ties in commerce, and the federal government is scattered across the two provinces. Therefore, abolishing Daylight Saving Time only in Ontario would be impractical. That said, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Friday at a press conference in Barrie that he believes the province will eventually switch to daylight saving time and become like the rest of North America.

British Columbia is in a similar situation, as the province and a couple of U.S. states wait for changes in California to "pull the trigger." Another Canadian province, Alberta, held a referendum on the idea of abolishing daylight saving time in 2021, and just over half of the people voted to leave it as it is.

So, why do many people think it's time to stop changing the clocks? First, medical experts believe that changing the time can cause a person's internal clock to malfunction. Doctors at the University of Turku in Finland concluded that the risk of strokes and heart attacks increases by 7% after the time change. Second, the number of car accidents has also been shown to tend to increase. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that car accidents increased by 8 percent the day after the time change. Moreover, daylight saving time not only leads to sleep deprivation in early spring, but also to a later onset of darkness in summer, favoring late bedtime and even more sleep deprivation. During the fall and winter seasons, Canada's northern location results in a significant loss of daylight hours.