EDITORIAL – Farewell to spring and fall time changes, we’re sad to see you go

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THIS SATURDAY NIGHT, we’ll set our clocks ahead one hour, and wake up Sunday an hour earlier than usual. It will be a darker morning but there will be more sunlight later in the day.

And so it goes, the usual ritual of changing from Pacific Standard Time to Daylight Saving Time. I enjoy the time change, always have. The autumn switch isn’t a big deal, and I manage to survive the adjustment in the spring.

But this will be the last time we do the ol’ switcheroo because B.C. Premier David Eby has decreed it so. From now on, we’ll be on DST year round. “Eliminating twice-yearly time changes reduces disruptions for families, simplifies scheduling and provides an extra hour of evening light during the winter months,” states a government news release today (March 2, 2026).

It goes on to claim that it will “improve people’s overall health, reduce disruptions for families, simplify scheduling and provide an extra hour of evening light during the winter month.”

There has been “chaos” in our busy lives due to the time changes, according to Eby.

From now on, we’ll be on “Pacific time.” This change has been talked about for years and would have been done much sooner except that then-premier John Horgan decided to wait until nearby U.S. states in the Pacific Northwest were ready to make the change, too. Eby obviously has a different view.

Are we so fragile that we can’t handled a time switch a couple of times a year? What has changed since our ancestors created DST to provide more summer daylight for evening golf games and save on energy consumption?

DST actually got its start in Canada, well over 100 years ago. Other places soon followed. I, for one, will be sorry to see it go, though maybe the milk cows will be happy. Sure, there will be more daylight later in the day year round, but those dreary dark mornings in the dead of winter won’t be good for the soul.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, writes for the Kamloops Chronicle and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.