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A Liberal MP in Ottawa has introduced a bill to completely eliminate the need to change clocks in this country, ostensibly by getting rid of Daylight Saving Time. It has little chance of passing without cooperation between the U.S. and Quebec, but what if it did? How would Canadian TV networks cope with the change?
It would mean that between March and November, U.S. primetime schedules would start at 7 PM and go until 10 at night. What would that do to simsub here? Networks like CTV, Global and City could arguably start their shows, like "Law & Order" or "9-1-1" an hour earlier in order to take advantage of simultaneous substitution, but what would they do with the 10PM hour? And what happens to all the syndicated programming they bought to fill the time between 7-8 PM?
Making things even more bizarre, between mid-November and the following March, when the U.S. reverts to EST, the schedules down south would return to 8 o'clock, further complicating matters for stations here.
Now imagine if Canada chose to say on DST all year long. That would be even worse. It means for half a year, American primetime would start at 9 PM here, and not end until midnight. What would happen to the local late night news in this country?
The whole thing makes my head spin. Perhaps the best thing to do is leave it alone. If it ain't broke, don't spend "the time" trying to fix it.
Should Canada stop changing the clocks twice a year? MP says it's time
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What would happen? Nothing because we will not change unless America does. This same old argument comes out every year
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Don't our MP's have more urgent issues to solve rather than should we or should we not end DST? Ontario passed the Time Amendment Act in 2020 which would make Standard time all year. Of course, this would only come into effect if Quebec and several U.S. border states followed suit. BC did something similar in 2019, but is waiting for Washington, Oregon and California to do the same. Personally, I have no problem with Standard Time all year.
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mace wrote:
the Time Amendment Act in 2020 which would make Standard time all year.
I am pretty sure it was to keep DST year around like what BC has approved to do - if neighbouring states follow through as well
Last edited by andysradio (October 3, 2025 11:47 am)
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andysradio wrote:
What would happen? Nothing because we will not change unless America does. This same old argument comes out every year
I thought the same thing and I still believe it's unlikely. So it surprised me to find it actually did happen. It was during the energy crisis down south and it was the U.S. that decided to stay on DST only. It was an experiment that did not last long, after endless complaints came to (you should pardon the expression) light.
I can't quite remember if Canada followed suit.
"The experiment was supposed to last for two years, but it only lasted eight months, and Congress reverted to standard time in the fall of 1974."
The U.S. Tried Permanent Daylight Saving Time Before. Here’s What Happened
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We did not follow the US. I came across the border in April 1975 after a road trip to Mexico and Canada was 1 hour different than New York State.
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I don't think there was simsub or really cable back then. So I suppose Canadian TV stations didn't worry about it as much as they might today.
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andysradio wrote:
mace wrote:
the Time Amendment Act in 2020 which would make Standard time all year.
I am pretty sure it was to keep DST year around like what BC has approved to do - if neighbouring states follow through as well
Nope, the Ontario bill states EST all year long, which is a huge mistake as far as I'm concerned. I would rather it remain the same than be darker earlier in the summer
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I've always preached splitting the difference. Set the clocks 30-minutes ahead in the spring, then drop the concept.
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RadioActive wrote:
I don't think there was simsub or really cable back then. So I suppose Canadian TV stations didn't worry about it as much as they might today.
Cable was fairly widespread by 1975, in Canada at least. Simsub was first introduced by the CRTC in 1972.
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paterson1 wrote:
RadioActive wrote:
I don't think there was simsub or really cable back then. So I suppose Canadian TV stations didn't worry about it as much as they might today.
Cable was fairly widespread by 1975, in Canada at least. Simsub was first introduced by the CRTC in 1972.
Doesn't mean simsub was widespread, as the TV Guide pages from April 1974, below, proves. It doesn't appear any shows were substituted on this night.
Also, it has a bonus - these listings were put out when the U.S. was, in fact, on a different time zone than us. Which explains why Johnny Carson shows up at 10:30 PM on NBC - 11:30 across the border, but not here.
It sort of answers my original question about what Canadian stations might do in this scenario, although as previously stated, simsub was not used as much as it is today.
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Speaking on behalf of Rogers Cable (Toronto), in 1975 they were inserting what was called a "Canadian Message" over select ad spots on what was then WGR, WBEN and WKBW. The content you would see a Canadian PSA for something typically out of USC, at 56 Sparks Street in Ottawa (remember that?). Burned on the bottom of the screen would be "Canadian Message". Also notable was the insertion into the Buffalo signal stream was primative as there was no frame sync, so the vertical would typically roll on the splice in and out. I suspect Rogers was using U-matic's for playback but just a guess. Betamax had just come on the market that year as well. The picture detail of the ad insert was subpar. As you may imagine, the 3 Buffalo broadcasters did not like having their signals tampered with in this manner and threatened to jam their signals into Canada. Now, how that ever would have worked I don't know, but I remember reading about this threat back in the day. We eventually ended up with what we have today, where the US channel is completely removed and replaced with the Canadian one for the duration of the simulcast.
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I doubt anything will come of this anyway. Bills introduced by an MP rarely go anywhere. Not impossible but unlikely. Also I believe the Ontario gov't already has said nothing would happen here unless border states went along with the change. The US experimented with year long daylight savings time in the mid 70's and most Americans hated it. People didn't like sending their children to school in the dark in the winter. The two year experiment with year long daylight saving time only lasted one year because of public complaints.
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I'd have to agree with you, paterson1. There is just too much deviation in daylight hours between the summer and winter solstices to have the same time zone be workable for the whole year. Personally, I just see it as an attempt for this MP to get her name out there.
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The Weed wrote:
We did not follow the US. I came across the border in April 1975 after a road trip to Mexico and Canada was 1 hour different than New York State.
I have an air check of CKLW from during that period. For those who weren't familiar with the circumstance it must have been strange to constantly hear them say the likes of "It's 7:35 in Windsor, 8:35 in Detroit".
Jocks gave time checks a lot in those days so it must have felt rather cumbersome to them. Fortunately, as mentioned, it didn't last long.
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Binson Echorec wrote:
I've always preached splitting the difference. Set the clocks 30-minutes ahead in the spring, then drop the concept.
I've saying the same thing for years. Great minds think alike, LOL.
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Dale Patterson wrote:
Binson Echorec wrote:
I've always preached splitting the difference. Set the clocks 30-minutes ahead in the spring, then drop the concept.
I've saying the same thing for years. Great minds think alike, LOL.
Evidently lol. I can't believe people of much more importance than I haven't landed on this resolution.
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30 minutes? At last! Newfoundland wouldn't be the only ones who are just half an hour ahead.