Ready to fall back? When daylight saving time ends in Canada

Although we’re only a few weeks into fall, it’s already time to start thinking about the winter ahead and the increased darkness we Canadians will soon have to endure.

Daylight saving time 2024 will come to an end on Nov. 3, so consider this your one-month warning.

Canadians in most time zones can “fall back” on Saturday, Nov. 2 this year before they head to bed, as the clocks roll back in the wee morning hours of Sunday, Nov. 3, while most people are sleeping.

(The Yukon, most of Saskatchewan and some parts of British Columbia and Quebec stay on standard time.)

Nowadays, most digital and Wi-Fi-connected devices will roll back automatically, but it never hurts to check your clocks on Nov. 3, and save yourself the embarrassment of showing up to work late on Monday.

For years, Canadians tired of this twice-yearly, time-travelling switch have argued that daylight saving time should be permanent across Canada.

Peter Graefe, an associate professor of political science at McMaster University, previously told Global News it wouldn’t be an easy switch, unless all provinces — and even our neighbours to the south — were to sign on.

“It’s difficult because it’s a collective action problem,” he said.

“If all the provinces and the states move at the same time, then we’re all in the same relationship with each other. Whereas if just certain provinces were going to move, then suddenly they would be off-kilter with their neighbouring states and provinces.”

According to some historians and archivists, DST originated around 1908 and 1909 in what is now Thunder Bay, Ont.

But the province where it likely began has indicated that it wants to end the time-change system. In 2020, the Ontario legislature unanimously passed a private member’s bill called