The U.S. may make daylight time permanent. There's a case for Canada to follow suit

If the U.S. decided to make daylight time permanent year-round, there would be pressure for Canada to follow suit.

In an interview with CBC Nova Scotia News at Six on Thursday, science journalist Jess Gamble told host Amy Smith she thinks the reason Canada hasn't made the move is because of the U.S.

"Everybody's been waiting for somebody else to move on this, but it's a deeply unpopular practice, has been for a long time now," Gamble said.

Talks of Canada ending the practice permanently comes as the U.S. gets closer to making daylight time permanent.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill to make daylight time permanent across the country, but it still needs approval from the House and President Joe Biden.

In Canada, Yukon and most of Saskatchewan don't change their clocks. Premiers in other provinces have expressed support for getting rid of the time change. 

Daylight time was adopted in the U.S. in 1918, following Europe's lead during the First World War. Gamble said the idea was to be frugal with daylight hours.

"If you think about it, we kind of wake up somewhat after the dawn, usually for most of us, and then there's this long stretch of darkness before we go to sleep," she said. 

"So the idea is to sort of calibrate that in the summertime. So we make the most of those long summer hours of sunshine. What's less obvious is why we need to revert to the standard time at all in the winter."

December and January might feel a bit brighter in the Maritimes if Canada ditched the practice of moving clocks an hour ahead in the spring and an hour behind in the fall.

In a tweet on Wednesday, CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon noted there would be no sunsets before 5 p.m. and no sunrises before 8:30 a.m. for those months.

Gamble said the worst impact of changing the time is when the clocks move ahead. She pointed to data that showed an uptick in heart attacks and car crashes on the Monday following the time change.

"Traffic accidents … that spike during that spring forward event, are also more prevalent in darkness. So it is a factor to consider," she said.

"The science kind of shows that we shouldn't be messing around with our clocks too much and routines," Gamble said.

Gamble said there would be major benefits if Canada followed the U.S. It would allow Canada to stay in sync with its most prominent trading partner in terms of meetings and co-ordination. She also said there would be health benefits.

"The healthiest schedule really for the human body is to wake up at the same time every morning, go to sleep at the same time, every night," she said.