Poll finds majority of Canadians support permanent daylight saving time

As British Columbia adopts permanent daylight saving time, a new poll finds more than half of Canadians are in favour of doing the same.

B.C. announced the move on March 2.

Yukon made the switch in 2020. Most of Saskatchewan is on year-round Central Standard Time, while a few other pockets of Canada also do not observe twice-yearly time changes.

The new Angus Reid poll surveyed more than 3,000 Canadians online between March 11 and 16.

It found 53 per cent of Canadians were in favour of year-round daylight saving time to have later sunsets in the evening. One third preferred permanent standard time, with earlier sunrises.

Fourteen per cent wanted to maintain the practice of moving the clocks one hour forward in the spring and back in the fall.

Of the 332 B.C. residents polled, 49 per cent preferred always being on daylight saving time. The poll found 37 per cent of B.C. respondents would prefer always being on standard time, while 15 per cent were in favour of sticking with twice-yearly time changes.

B.C. introduced legislation in 2019 that paved the way for a switch to permanent daylight saving time, but the province had been waiting for the western U.S. states of Washington, Oregon and California to align with the move.

A 2019 survey found 93 per cent of British Columbians supported moving to daylight saving time permanently. The province said more than 223,000 people responded to the survey.

The Angus Reid Institute notes the province’s survey only asked respondents whether B.C. should adopt year-round daylight saving time and did not ask about year-round standard time.

The majority of respondents in neighbouring Alberta also said they want to end the spring and fall time changes. The poll found 47 per cent of Albertans were in favour of permanent daylight saving time, while 40 per cent would prefer standard time.