All of Canada’s western provinces have officially abandoned the practice of changing their clocks twice per year, and a recent survey found that most people in B.C., Alberta and Manitoba are glad it’s over.
The provincial governments of B.C., Alberta and Manitoba separately announced they would end the semi-annual time change and adopt permanent daylight saving time in recent months. This meant that when clocks were adjusted in most of Ontario and eastward earlier this month, the time remained unchanged in the Prairies and B.C.
Stopping the practice was favoured by most people surveyed in the three provinces that ended the practice this year, according to the poll. In B.C., only 18 per cent said they favoured switching back-and-forth, according to the results of a poll released Thursday by the Angus Reid Institute. Twenty-one per cent of people in Alberta and Manitoba preferred to fall back and spring forward.
More than 70 per cent of respondents in the three provinces agreed that it was the “right move” to opt out of changing the time this fall. Results were mixed regarding if they preferred the earlier sunrises of standard time or the later sunsets of daylight time.
Forty per cent of British Columbians polled said they preferred the later sunsets. This figure has dropped by around 10 per cent when compared to a poll conducted in March.
Slightly more than 30 per cent wanted to see the sun rise earlier in that province, the fall survey found.
Get daily National news
Manitoban opinions stayed generally the same when compared to the results from last spring, with 49 per cent in favour of permanent daylight saving time. The earlier poll said 52 per cent of people reported they would rather see the sun out later in the day.
A quarter of those surveyed earlier this month in Manitoba favoured year-round standard time.
Results in Alberta represented “a shift in public opinion compared to the spring,” Angus Reid wrote. Its March poll found 47 per cent of people in the province preferred daylight saving time. That level of approval depleted to 33 per cent in November.
Around two-fifths of people surveyed in Alberta said they would prefer always being on standard time.
Saskatchewan dropped the practice in 1966, when the province adopted permanent standard time. More than half of residents reported that they would choose to use standard time, with 41 per cent saying they would prefer switching to daylight saving time.
Time change comes with challenges
More than half of people in all three provinces said they have faced challenges after not turning their clocks back.
The survey found that 59 per cent of people in B.C., 64 per cent of those in Manitoba and 65 per cent of Alberta residents dealt with challenges or annoyances. The most common complaint, at 42 per cent, was that technology did not keep up. Some smart devices fell back, despite the provincial decisions.
Less than one third of respondents also cited the darker mornings and issues with calendars, meetings and scheduling as frequent annoyances they faced. Being out of the usual routines with Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes was also a point of frustration for 18 per cent of respondents.
The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey from Nov. 3-6, 2026, among a randomized sample of 1,634 Canadian adults. Respondents are drawn from the Angus Reid Forum, a large-scale online panel developed to include Canadian residents in each of the 343 federal ridings in Canada.
For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding. The survey was self-commissioned and paid for by the Angus Reid Institute.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.