In Depth
Daylight Time
Daylight time: Springing ahead and falling back
Last Updated October 27, 2006
CBC News
Daylight time was first enacted in Germany in 1915, quickly followed by Britain and much of Europe and Canada.
Because the sun shone for a time while most people were asleep, it was reasoned that light could be better used during the day. The solution was to push the clocks ahead one hour in springtime, forcing people to wake an hour earlier. They would therefore expend less energy trying to light their homes, for instance, if time were adjusted to suit their daily patterns.
When the days started getting shorter in the fall and people awoke to increasing darkness, the clocks were turned back an hour to get more light in the morning.
History
Although first instituted in 1915, the idea of daylight time had been batted around for more than a century. Benjamin Franklin suggested the idea more than once in the 1770s while he was a minister to France. But it wasn't until more than a century later that the idea of daylight time was taken seriously.
William Willett, an English writer revived the idea in 1907, and eight years later Germany was the first nation to adopt daylight time. The reason: energy conservation. Britain quickly followed suit and instituted British Summer Time in 1916.
Several areas, including parts of Europe, Canada and the U.S., followed suit during the First World War. In most cases daylight time ended with the armistice.
During the Second World War, a different form of daylight time was reinstated by Britain and clocks were set two hours ahead of GMT during the summer. It was known as Double Summer Time. The time shift didn't end with the summer, as clocks were rolled back to be one hour ahead of GMT through the winter.
The Uniform Time Act, enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1966, established a system of uniform (within each time zone) daylight time throughout most of the U.S. and its possessions, exempting only those states in which the legislatures voted to keep the entire state on standard time.
Canada and abroad
It's up to each province to decide whether to use daylight time, and not all do. As of 2006, with a few exceptions, most jurisdictions in Canada and the U.S. have been moving their clocks ahead by one hour on the first Sunday of April, and then back an hour on the last Sunday of October.
But beginning in 2007, daylight time will begin earlier and end later in the United States and in most jurisdictions in Canada. U.S. President George W. Bush signed legislation in August 2005 calling for daylight time to start on the second Sunday in March, three weeks earlier than the traditional start. The bill also extends daylight time by a week to the first Sunday in November.
This new schedule was introduced to try to help save energy, since people aren't expected to need their lights on as early in the evening. But there is still some debate about how effective the change will be at reducing energy consumption.
Eight provinces and two territories say they will follow the U.S. plan and begin daylight time earlier and end it later. Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut have not indicated whether they will follow suit. Ontario has said not doing so would create too many headaches for trade and travel.
In Canada, areas of Quebec east of 63 degrees east longitude do not change to daylight time and remain on Atlantic Standard Time year round. Most of Saskatchewan uses Central Standard Time year round, and small pockets of Ontario and British Columbia do not use daylight time.
Daylight time is observed in most of the United States, with the exceptions of part of Arizona and part of Indiana. Much of Africa does not observe it, nor does China, Japan, the Indian subcontinent or Indonesia.
Some parts of Australia have adopted daylight time. Of course, it's done a little differently than in the Northern Hemisphere where seasons are opposite. So, when daylight time starts in Canada, it comes to an end in Australia and vice versa. When Canadians are waxing their skis in December, Australians are waxing their surfboards because it's summer there.
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SET YOUR CLOCKS:
In 2005, Daylight Saving Time began in most of Canada on Sunday April 3 at 2 a.m. It ends Sunday October 30, 2005, at 2 a.m.
QUOTE:
"I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves."
Robertson Davies: The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday
MEDIA:
- AUDIO:
CBC interview: Michael Downing, author of "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving.
- Oct.20, 2005 (Runs 5:02)
