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Petition - Stop Daylight Saving Time in Canada - Change.org (www.change.org)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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Join the petition to ask the Canadian government to adopt Standard Time all year round.

"Changing clocks twice a year is hazardous to your health.  There are many studies showing that changing the clock and staying on Daylight Saving Time negatively impacts our circadian rhythm, causes increases in strokes and heart attacks, impacts people with depression and seasonal affective disorder and causes more car accidents. 

I ask the Canadian Government to finally stop Daylight Saving Time and enact Permanent Standard Time. Even if one person is saved from having a stroke or heart attack or is saved from a car accident, it's worth it.  Support the health and safety of Canadians and set an example for the rest of the world.  

Follow the scientific research. Do the right thing and not just the easy and uninformed thing.  Don’t change the clocks. Leave them on Standard Time year round. Do not spring forward."

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[–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

IIRC didn't a recent prime minister (probably Trudeau) say that we would do it if the US also did it? I agree that DST is a mistake but I think doing it without coordination of the US would be cause fare more pain than benefits.

The EU also recommended member states to stop doing DST if I recall correctly. So it seems like if the US can be convinced the world would pretty quickly move away from DST.

On the other hand aren't the health concerns mostly bunk? I remember seeing a lot of studies that noted an uptick of various issues during a DST transition but closer inspection revealed that the vast majority of this effect was time-shifting of issues that were going to happen anyways. Basically if you were going to have a heart attack in the next week you will have it during the jump, but if you look at the week or month overall there was no statically significant change. I do admit that I am behind on research here though. Are there any well reviewed meta-analysis that are showing significant results?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago*

    Yes, there is some decent research on this though nothing super definitive because most research is still very local. Specially on traffic accidents, most security experts agree that having DST permanent would be beneficial.

    I'm the opinion that having fewer crashes would offset the mild annoyance of being 1 hour out of sync with the US, but I'm not too strong on this stance either. We have other things that have higher return for same level of effort to implement... like better car lighting regulations that as always the US (NHTSA) is fucking motionless and we're locked to them.

    I'd put all chips to eliminating RTOR but I don't expect to see that in my lifetime.

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