As Washington state and most of the United States turns clocks an hour back to standard time on Sunday, Nov. 1, British Columbia is sticking with daylight saving time. This is the first time in modern memory that Washington state and Vancouver, Canada will not share a time zone.
Outgoing British Columbia Premier David Eby announced earlier this year that the province would stop changing clocks permanently. The decision is expected to create confusion and logistical challenges, given the shared border between Washington and British Columbia.
“If you hop on the Amtrak train and you cross the border, all of a sudden the time is going to change. I think a lot about people down here south of the border who utilize the Vancouver International Airport,” said Laurie Trautman, director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University.
According to state and federal agencies that track border traffic, approximately 32,000 vehicles cross the Canada-Washington border each day.
“We're going to have to factor that into our travel time, and I think there's going to be a fair number of people who aren't paying attention, or aren't aware, or didn't get the memo that this is happening,” said Trautman.
Trautman expects this one-hour difference will also impact how data at the Canada-U.S. border is shared, such as wait times and number of cars.
Daylight saving time was created to solve a logistical problem that emerged as the railway network expanded in North America in the 1800s. Engineer Sanford Fleming, who worked for Canadian railways, invented time zones in the 1870s to keep trains running on time.
President Donald Trump’s proposed Sunshine Protection Act would keep daylight saving time year-round. The measure passed in the House, but does not yet have enough support in the Senate.
