4 ms·

Why now? From the Govt of BC press release: "The Interpretation Amendment Act, which is the legal framework that enables the Province to adopt permanent DST, be

by esoltys 7mo ago

Why now? From the Govt of BC press release: "The Interpretation Amendment Act, which is the legal framework that enables the Province to adopt permanent DST, became law in 2019. At the time, government chose not to bring it into force in order to co-ordinate timing with neighbouring U.S. states in the same time zone. Recent actions from the U.S. have shifted how B.C. approaches decisions that merit alignment, including on time zones. Making this change now reflects the current preferences and needs of British Columbians, and helps ensure the province is well-positioned to thrive, even when circumstances across the border evolve." https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026AG0013-000209 https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026AG0013-000209

fc417fc802 7mo ago
Notably Washington state legislated the same change to DST years ago (instead of standard time, the morons!) but the federal government never approved the switch. AFAIK it's still pending. I remain unclear what authority the federal government has over such a matter and why Washington (or any other) state has opted to respect it. What are they going to do if a state just ignores them and switches their clocks? Sometimes I get the impression that the spirit of states rights in the US has died.
- throw0101c 7mo ago
  If US states want to get rid of time switches they are free to go to year-round Standard Time (like Arizona).
  - fc417fc802 7mo ago
    You're saying the federal government granted blanket authorization to switch to the one? So the only reason states wait on authorization is merely obtusely insisting on the wrong choice? (In addition to being impotent.) The more I learn about this issue the more things I find to be angry about.
    - pwg 7mo ago
      Yes. States are allowed to ignore "summer time" and remain on "standard time" all year round. Arizona is the usual example cited, they do not change the clocks, and remain on standard time year round. The special auth. from the Fed's is needed to switch to "permanent summer time" (and, possibly advocating for year round "summer time" gives the state politicians cover to do nothing, because "their hands are tied...").
    - tempestn 7mo ago
      Permanent DST being the "wrong" choice is your opinion, and a minority one. Certainly doesn't make those who disagree "morons".
      - fc417fc802 7mo ago
        Indeed, it is my opinion. It's not in the minority so much as it runs counter to what lobbyists with vested interests have loudly promoted. Most people haven't given the matter much thought and don't have an opinion on it (let alone an informed one). "Morons" was an overly dramatic way of putting it but it is very clearly the technically deficient choice as will be apparent to anyone who bothers to consult the history books. The US already attempted permanent DST in 1974 but quickly repealed it. Russia similarly tried it out from 2011 to 2014 before switching to permanent standard time instead. The UK also tried it at one point before abandoning it. Mexico might have tried it for the longest, from 1996 until 2022 when they too switched to permanent standard time. (Actually I'm unclear why Mexico gave it up. They're far enough south that the difference between the two shouldn't be particularly impactful.) The correct answer here is obvious. (This being HN I guess personal political rants aren't really the thing to do so I should at least link to some actual literature on the topic. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2019.00944/full https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10....)
        chupasaurus 7mo ago
        I can attest that switch to DST was felt as a curse during winters in Moscow.
  - seniorsassycat 7mo ago
    Just switch to the +1 standard time. WA can switch to MST, which is equivalent to PDT. It still requires federal approval, but from Sec Transit instead of Congress
- TheSkyHasEyes 7mo ago
  I read elsewhere this may be partial reason why BC forged ahead. As Canada/US relationship is on the rocks and BC stopped waiting for the US to change.
  - xer0x 7mo ago
    Nailed it. It's been ~5 years, and the odds of coordinating with the US grow smaller by the month.
    - bonestamp2 7mo ago
      I think we just needed some government with the balls to go for it and everyone else on the west coast will follow. The legality of DST might be an issue in the US but if we can clear that hurdle then BC could be the catalyst.
- seanmcdirmid 7mo ago
  It is crazy, because there is actually a law that allows us to switch to year round PST if we want (but no one wants that), while we need congressional approval to switch to PDT year round (which is what everyone wants) and the house voted for it, but the senate simply didn't make it a priority.
  - irishcoffee 7mo ago
    [flagged]
    - dang 7mo ago
      Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful. We've already had to ask you this recently so it would be good to fix. I don't want to ban you - your good comments are fine. But bad comments do more damage than good comments add goodness... a sad fact of life.
- wahern 7mo ago
  > I remain unclear what authority the federal government has over such a matter It's actually an enumerated power under Article I, Section 8, Clause 5: > [The Congress shall have Power...] To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; ... https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C5-1/ALDE_00001066/ https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C5-1/...
  - troad 7mo ago
    I'm surprised that would be interpreted to include time zones. Units of time, arguably (measures), but time zones? Time zones are not a measure of anything. Time zones do not follow on from definitions of units of time, any more than road speed limits follow on from the definition of a mile. I would be less surprised if it were the commerce power used to uphold time zone coordination - for the promotion and regularity of interstate commerce etc etc. Tenuous, but consistent with a lot of the other nonsense that's been hung from the commerce power over the years. Then there's the actual enforcement angle - time zones are just a social convention whereby people in a given area pretend that the time is slightly different than it 'really' is (local solar time). There's no reason local / state government and businesses can't post / operate on different hours, and leave federal bodies to operate on whatever 'federal time' they want. This already happens in parts of the world where the official time is locally inappropriate, such as Eucla in Australia or Xinjiang in China. Obviously the optimal solution here is to coordinate a time change at all levels of government, but failing that there are other options.
    - arrowsmith 7mo ago
      They measure the number of minutes since sunrise.
      - nairboon 7mo ago
        Which changes every day.
    - wahern 7mo ago
- hn_acc1 7mo ago
  It was only ever a thing to promote civil war grievances.
- jasonwatkinspdx 7mo ago
  > Sometimes I get the impression that the spirit of states rights in the US has died. It was bullshit from day one. The origin of the state's rights argument was slave state's attempting to force free states to round up fugitive slave and return them to the slave states.
- 14 7mo ago
  The more I think about it the less sure I am if I would prefer a permanent switch to be standard or daylight time. On one hand I really dislike winter months and work starting in complete darkness. So always enjoy the time change and mornings soon after feeling brighter. But on the other hand come summer I really love getting off work and going to the beach. So I will have more sun hours this way which is big. I really thought they would split the difference and just go 30 minutes but guess that would be challenging for many reasons.
- briffle 7mo ago
  I believe both Oregon and Washington have passed bills, but both require CA to also pass so that the whole west coast moves. CA has still not passed a bill.
dlev_pika 7mo ago
Ha! I read the news and I was wondering if the scuffle with the US was the nudge to get this going, further differentiating the way of life. My intuition was correct pats own back
computomatic 7mo ago
I don't have a source to site, but I'm fairly certain the Canadian government is adopting (and presumably encouraging provinces to adopt) a general policy of explicitly not allowing US preferences to dictate our domestic policy moving forward. Of course, that is indeed in response to recent actions from the U.S. And in that light, this time change was an obvious early move as the only thing preventing it was the trigger based on the US states.
- willhslade 7mo ago
  It's going to be hard for Toronto, home of our banking and stock exchange, to differ materially in operating hours from NYC.

by esoltys 7mo ago

fc417fc802 7mo ago

Notably Washington state legislated the same change to DST years ago (instead of standard time, the morons!) but the federal government never approved the switch. AFAIK it's still pending. I remain unclear what authority the federal government has over such a matter and why Washington (or any other) state has opted to respect it. What are they going to do if a state just ignores them and switches their clocks? Sometimes I get the impression that the spirit of states rights in the US has died.

throw0101c 7mo ago
If US states want to get rid of time switches they are free to go to year-round Standard Time (like Arizona).
- fc417fc802 7mo ago
  You're saying the federal government granted blanket authorization to switch to the one? So the only reason states wait on authorization is merely obtusely insisting on the wrong choice? (In addition to being impotent.) The more I learn about this issue the more things I find to be angry about.
  - pwg 7mo ago
    Yes. States are allowed to ignore "summer time" and remain on "standard time" all year round. Arizona is the usual example cited, they do not change the clocks, and remain on standard time year round. The special auth. from the Fed's is needed to switch to "permanent summer time" (and, possibly advocating for year round "summer time" gives the state politicians cover to do nothing, because "their hands are tied...").
  - tempestn 7mo ago
    Permanent DST being the "wrong" choice is your opinion, and a minority one. Certainly doesn't make those who disagree "morons".
    - fc417fc802 7mo ago
      Indeed, it is my opinion. It's not in the minority so much as it runs counter to what lobbyists with vested interests have loudly promoted. Most people haven't given the matter much thought and don't have an opinion on it (let alone an informed one). "Morons" was an overly dramatic way of putting it but it is very clearly the technically deficient choice as will be apparent to anyone who bothers to consult the history books. The US already attempted permanent DST in 1974 but quickly repealed it. Russia similarly tried it out from 2011 to 2014 before switching to permanent standard time instead. The UK also tried it at one point before abandoning it. Mexico might have tried it for the longest, from 1996 until 2022 when they too switched to permanent standard time. (Actually I'm unclear why Mexico gave it up. They're far enough south that the difference between the two shouldn't be particularly impactful.) The correct answer here is obvious. (This being HN I guess personal political rants aren't really the thing to do so I should at least link to some actual literature on the topic. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2019.00944/full https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10....)
      - chupasaurus 7mo ago
        I can attest that switch to DST was felt as a curse during winters in Moscow.
- seniorsassycat 7mo ago
  Just switch to the +1 standard time. WA can switch to MST, which is equivalent to PDT. It still requires federal approval, but from Sec Transit instead of Congress
TheSkyHasEyes 7mo ago
I read elsewhere this may be partial reason why BC forged ahead. As Canada/US relationship is on the rocks and BC stopped waiting for the US to change.
- xer0x 7mo ago
  Nailed it. It's been ~5 years, and the odds of coordinating with the US grow smaller by the month.
  - bonestamp2 7mo ago
    I think we just needed some government with the balls to go for it and everyone else on the west coast will follow. The legality of DST might be an issue in the US but if we can clear that hurdle then BC could be the catalyst.
seanmcdirmid 7mo ago
It is crazy, because there is actually a law that allows us to switch to year round PST if we want (but no one wants that), while we need congressional approval to switch to PDT year round (which is what everyone wants) and the house voted for it, but the senate simply didn't make it a priority.
- irishcoffee 7mo ago
  [flagged]
  - dang 7mo ago
    Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful. We've already had to ask you this recently so it would be good to fix. I don't want to ban you - your good comments are fine. But bad comments do more damage than good comments add goodness... a sad fact of life.
wahern 7mo ago
> I remain unclear what authority the federal government has over such a matter It's actually an enumerated power under Article I, Section 8, Clause 5: > [The Congress shall have Power...] To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; ... https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C5-1/ALDE_00001066/ https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C5-1/...
- troad 7mo ago
  I'm surprised that would be interpreted to include time zones. Units of time, arguably (measures), but time zones? Time zones are not a measure of anything. Time zones do not follow on from definitions of units of time, any more than road speed limits follow on from the definition of a mile. I would be less surprised if it were the commerce power used to uphold time zone coordination - for the promotion and regularity of interstate commerce etc etc. Tenuous, but consistent with a lot of the other nonsense that's been hung from the commerce power over the years. Then there's the actual enforcement angle - time zones are just a social convention whereby people in a given area pretend that the time is slightly different than it 'really' is (local solar time). There's no reason local / state government and businesses can't post / operate on different hours, and leave federal bodies to operate on whatever 'federal time' they want. This already happens in parts of the world where the official time is locally inappropriate, such as Eucla in Australia or Xinjiang in China. Obviously the optimal solution here is to coordinate a time change at all levels of government, but failing that there are other options.
  - arrowsmith 7mo ago
    They measure the number of minutes since sunrise.
    - nairboon 7mo ago
      Which changes every day.
  - wahern 7mo ago
hn_acc1 7mo ago
It was only ever a thing to promote civil war grievances.
jasonwatkinspdx 7mo ago
> Sometimes I get the impression that the spirit of states rights in the US has died. It was bullshit from day one. The origin of the state's rights argument was slave state's attempting to force free states to round up fugitive slave and return them to the slave states.
14 7mo ago
The more I think about it the less sure I am if I would prefer a permanent switch to be standard or daylight time. On one hand I really dislike winter months and work starting in complete darkness. So always enjoy the time change and mornings soon after feeling brighter. But on the other hand come summer I really love getting off work and going to the beach. So I will have more sun hours this way which is big. I really thought they would split the difference and just go 30 minutes but guess that would be challenging for many reasons.
briffle 7mo ago
I believe both Oregon and Washington have passed bills, but both require CA to also pass so that the whole west coast moves. CA has still not passed a bill.

dlev_pika 7mo ago

Ha! I read the news and I was wondering if the scuffle with the US was the nudge to get this going, further differentiating the way of life. My intuition was correct pats own back

computomatic 7mo ago

I don't have a source to site, but I'm fairly certain the Canadian government is adopting (and presumably encouraging provinces to adopt) a general policy of explicitly not allowing US preferences to dictate our domestic policy moving forward. Of course, that is indeed in response to recent actions from the U.S. And in that light, this time change was an obvious early move as the only thing preventing it was the trigger based on the US states.

willhslade 7mo ago
It's going to be hard for Toronto, home of our banking and stock exchange, to differ materially in operating hours from NYC.