Today is the day when 48 US states, 9 Canadian provinces and 3 Canadian territories change to daylight savings time. (For example, a little over 24 hours ago it was 10:00 am EST in Toronto, and a few minutes ago, because of the time change, it was 11:00 am EDT.)
I happen to live in one of those 2 US states and one Canadian province where we do not go on daylight time. So, a little over 24 hours ago it was 9 am CST here, and a few minutes ago it was also 9 am CST here.
In theory this should not be a problem, but it seems the rest of North America (by and large) is oblivious to the fact that we in Saskatchewan, Arizona and Hawaii leave our clocks alone. Some of them also continue to call their local time Standard Time instead of Daylight Time, which really confuses things. If someone in Winnipeg says that a meeting is at 10:00 CST, but means 10:00 CDT, we Saskatchewanians will be an hour late.
There is some talk that we might have a referendum on the issue this autumn – if we change to daylight time along with almost everyone else, the problem largely disappears. Then again, of course, we will be sleepy, hour-robbed people a year from now, and we will have to dig out the manuals to all of our electronic devices to remember how on Earth we change the time on them.
The fact that the 105th meridian passes through Saskatchewan (just east of Moose Jaw, west of Regina) and is the natural boundary between Mountain Time and Central Time plays no small role in this. Western Saskatchewan feels a greater affinity with Alberta than with Manitoba. Arguably, we are on CST year-round so that we match Alberta in summer and Manitoba in winter, so as to partially assuage the worries of those who feel a kinship with one province or the other.
Perhaps we should just steal Newfoundland’s idea and have our own time zone, halfway in between, and go on daylight time.
