A permanent Alberta clock time… please!
By Lethbridge Herald on March 6, 2026.
Editor,
Dear Premier,
This is an open letter requesting clock sanity!
British Columbia is adopting a permanent and constant clock time. Saskatchewan has long been on a single permanent time.
In 2021, Albertans were given the chance to vote on two options, when we should have had a third choice. The result was a near tie. I would not be surprised if many voters were as frustrated as me, as I did not like either of the two options presented: continued twice-a-year changes, or permanent daylight time. I suspect many would have happily voted for permanent standard time, which is natural and healthier.
Now is the time. Now is the time to spare us this annual torment! Now is the time to create a swath stretching from the 102nd Meridian (Sask-Man. Border) to the Pacific Ocean, plus Yukon and probably also the N.W.T. – all of Western Canada – where the clock never changes!
Please make the summer of 2026 the last time we advance our clocks to DST. I realize it is far too late to stop this year’s clock change, but give us the hope and the assurance that it will be the last time, that we will change our clocks only twice more and in 2027 we will get to stay put! Please put us on permanent Mountain Standard Time, UTC minus seven hours.
It would not surprise me if Manitoba follows suit and we create a solid Western Canada bastion of clock stability – Saskatchewan UTC-6, Alberta UTC-7, B.C. and Yukon UTC-7.
Geoffrey Capp,
Lethbridge
12-11
I believe our government plans to separate our time completely from Trudeau-time. It will be the last time Otterwa tells us what time it is!
Apparently ‘Ryan Tanner’ is organizing a petition to align us with Australian Standard Time.
I wish you had a sense of humor. 😉
I can totally get behind “Tanner Time”!
thanks for good laugh, sophie (although it sounds too real)!
insofar as the letter’s concern, it is my understanding that bc is moving to dst, and staying put, while sk is essentially central standard time.
my preference, if force-choiced between 3 options of stick with micromanaging as much as we can including the clock, then i would vote for permanent dst – creates more late day light, allowing for more daylight outdoor opportunity in the summer, as well keeps us more alert toward the end of work days in the winter. it does suck that the mornings are longer dark in the dead of winter under dst, but that brings me to my favourite option for the entire country: move forward a half hour this season, or back a half hour from dst in the fall, and stop playing with stuff that hardly needs disruption. splitting the difference is often a good option, and in this case i see it as the perfect way to minimise disappointment and disruption.
looks like the split the difference with the half hour solution, never to bothered by moving the clock again, is a solid no-go!
not surprising that a reasonable compromise approach, even on something as innocuous as fiddling with a clock, is affected by our ever polarised limitations.
Medically speaking , both mentally and biologically (I think there is a difference?), permanent STANDARD time wins hands down. Not one article that I have read, suggests otherwise. DST however results in a myriad of well documented issues . Choosing between the current time change scenario and another even more ridiculous one makes zero sense. Why other jurisdictions adopt permanent DST is beyond the scope of my grey matter.
Keep daylight savings time. I npw live on Sk where it’s dark till after 9am and there really is no appreciable or noticable advantage in the evening. Therefore, kids go to school in the pitch black and it seems most people and businesses (trades as well) don’t start till 9am.
I really enjoyed the change when we lived in AB. Tells you that Spring is on the way and we get some nice long days to enjoy!
I don’t buy into the sleep issues by changing one hour in a day, people aren’t that disciplined on their sleep times anyway it seems.