How well do you know Daylight Saving Time? Take our quizJONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press
It’s one of the most divisive times of the year for the majority of Canadians: daylight saving time.
British Columbia will be changing their clocks for the last time on March 8, as the province adopts permanent daylight time. But how well do you know the history of daylight time? Take our quiz to test your knowledge.
b. Thunder Bay. The Northern Ontario town – known then as Port Arthur – pioneered the switch in 1908. Germany was the first country to adopt daylight saving time in 1916.
d. Saskatchewan. The majority of the province made the switch in 1966. Yukon made a similar change in 2020.
c. New York. Ontario needs the U.S. state to pass a similar bill to avoid economic disruption. B.C. had been waiting for key trade partners California, Oregon and Washington State to agree to the change since 2019 before going ahead anyway.
a. Ten months. Former U.S. President Richard Nixon had enacted permanent daylight time to help with the gas crisis. The law was revoked in October of that year after there was an increase in car accidents, and concerns with children heading to school in the dark.
d. Five times. The Sunlight Protection Act would establish a permanent daylight saving time in the U.S. It is currently before a Senate committee for further study.
c. 1966. U.S. Congress passed a bill establishing daylight saving time in 1966, and Canada followed afterward for economic interactions.
c. 2 a.m. The time was chosen to avoid economic disruptions.
b. George Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist, first proposed the idea in 1895 so that there would be more sunshine to study bugs in the summer. Benjamin Franklin, while in France, satirically wrote over 100 years earlier that Parisians should wake up earlier to save on candlelight.
How well did you do?
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Timmins.