Manitoban politicians, citizens debate on whether to scrap daylight savings

After B.C. Premier David Eby recently announced the province will be ending daylight savings time changes, it’s created quite a discussion about whether Manitoba should follow suit.

So much so that the conservatives tabled a bill on Wednesday, hoping to get rid of the seasonal change.

“With neighbouring provinces like Saskatchewan already on a year-round daylight savings. B.C. is announcing that this spring will be the last time their clocks move forward, and Alberta is looking to follow suit. There has never been a more advantageous time to make this change,” said Ron Schuler, the MLA for Springfield-Ritchot.

One Manitoban CityNews spoke to said, “Not a big fan of daylight savings personally, just keep everything the same, make it easier on everybody, kids, families.”

While another said, “Just one time for everything, that way we don’t have to bother with falling back and springing forward.”

But of course, not everyone agrees; some say it should be kept, to make summer nights stretch on as long as possible.

“You know what, summers are so short in Manitoba, so having daylight until 9 o’clock is awesome, I can’t imagine it being dark like it is in the wintertime,” said one Manitoban.

Another Manitoban said, “I think the farmers need it, they need the evening time so they can work later, and I don’t know, I like the long evenings with daylight.”

But whatever side of the coin you land on, for now, Manitobans should be getting set to spring those clocks forward on March 8.