Winnipeg's long history with Daylight Saving Time

© 2026, Christian Cassidy

It appears that Daylight Saving Time (DST) may be a thing of the past for Winnipeggers in the near future. The city has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the time change going back 110 years. Here's a look at that history, which is an expansion of the research I did for this Winnipeg Free Press Review column. For a "Winnipeg DST history in brief" chart, see the bottom of this post.

'Tis never too late for delight, my dear, 

And the best of all ways 

To lengthen our days 

Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear!
Excerpt from "The Young May Moon", Thomas Moore, 1807 

Montreal Star, July 11,1908

The idea of getting the most daylight into our daytime hours is not new.

The ancient Romans used a version of daylight saving that saw the length of an hour shorten in the winter. In an essay published in le Journal de Paris in 1874, Benjamin Franklin calculated how many candles Parisians could save if they only woke up an hour earlier in the spring and summer months. New Zealand entomologist George Hudson tried to promote a two-hour summer time shift in his country in the 1890s. There were undoubtedly countless others who proposed the same thing in their own parts of the world.

The roots of Canada's journey to DST can be loosely traced back to British builder William Willet, who, in his 1907 pamphlet entitled The Waste of Daylight, outlined a staged approach of adding 20 minutes to the clock each week in the early spring to provide eighty minutes of daylight at the end of the work day. He brought his campaign not only to the public, but to governments big and small.

Willet's scheme, which became known as Daylight Saving Time (DST), was debated in the British House of Commons in 1908 and 1909, but the bill never made it to a third reading. 

The British debate was covered closely in Canadian newspapers. The article above appeared in the Montreal Star in July 1908 to illustrate how Britain's DST would work.

It is often claimed that the town of Port Arthur, followed days later by neighbouring Fort William, which are now known collectively as Thunder Bay, Ontario, became the first municipality in Canada, and maybe one of the few places in the world, to adopt DST starting on May 1, 1908.

Searching the archives of dozens of Canadian newspapers, little detailed reporting of the change can be found, (see above for a the lengthier reports and commentary.)  It appears that what the communities really did was permanently switch their time zone to the neighbouring Eastern Standard Time (EST). This likely had as much to standardize its shipping and train schedules with the rest of Ontario as its importance as a sea port and rail terminal grew. The added daylight in summer was just an additional benefit.

It should be noted that despite the amount of media coverage about Britain's Daylight Saving Bill, no newspaper mentions of the time zone switch in Port/Fort or Nelson, B.C. refer to them as adopting DST.

In March 1909, E. N. Lewis, Member of Parliament for Huron West (Ontario), introduced a Daylight Saving Bill in Canada's parliament that was based on the one still being debated in Britain. This private members' bill was read a second time, then referred to a special committee that would spend the next few weeks soliciting the opinions of municipal councils, school boards and other groups.

An informal survey of newspaper coverage of the bill seems to show a lot of support, at least in bigger cities. From Vancouver to Halifax, there were front page stories about boards of trade, athletic associations, national railways and other bodies coming out in favour of DST. Many newspapers had editorials that supported the likely benefits of an extra hour of sunlight in summer evenings.

The committee found this same level of support and approved it unanimously, but that was as far as it got before the parliamentary session ended.

Lewis reintroduced his bill at the next two sessions of parliament, in December 1909 and December 1910, but it wasn't picked up for further debate, which isn't unusual for a private members' bill. The Ottawa Citizen noted in an April 1911 editorial that "It is to be regretted that parliament has not found time to take up again the Daylight Saving bill this session." By this time, Lewis had moved on to other issues.

It's unclear why, given the apparent public support for the issue, the Canadian government didn't introduce a Daylight Saving Bill of its own. It may have been watching Britain where its bill never got a lot of traction in parliament, faced backlash from farmers and rural communities, and was never passed into law.

May 13, 1916, The Graphic, London, England

It wasn't until the First World War that DST became a top issue again. Discussions began in many jurisdictions in 1915 about adopting the scheme as a wartime measure to extend daylight hours to save fuel and electricity for the war effort and provide an extra hour of daylight in the evening for activities. 

Germany and Austria were the first countries to introduce it in from April 1916 until the end of September. This was followed in the coming days o weeks by France, Denmark and several other mainland European countries. It came into effect in the UK starting on May 21, 1916. (Sadly, William Willet died of influenza in March 1915 at the age of 58 and never saw his "daylight saving" in action.)

In Canada and the U.S., it wasn't implemented at the national level until 1918.

February 16, 1916, Winnipeg Tribune

The first mention of some form of Daylight Saving Time in Winnipeg came in May 1915, when Board of Control chair Robert Shore presented a motion to city council asking that city offices and employees be allowed to open and close an hour earlier to give employees the benefit of extra sunlight. Council did not pass the motion, but reached a compromise that allowed some civic offices to open and close a half hour earlier over the summer.

In February 1916, Controller Shore and Alderman John Queen introduced a motion to create a DST bylaw for the city. When it came to a vote on the floor of council, they were the only two in favour. Some opponents called DST "merely a fad".

Following city council's no vote, a growing number of local organisations were coming out in favour of DST. One of the first was the local branch of the Canadian Credit Men's Trust Association, which was made up of representatives from the city's trust and credit companies. Other groups, such as the Winnipeg Board of Trade, Boy Scouts Association, Manitoba Automobile Club, Retail Merchants Association, and the Rotary Club, also expressed support.  

A coalition of 42 of the city's most prominent firms, including Eatons, Monarch Lumber, Union Bank, and Western Canada Flour Mills, approached council to ask it to reconsider.

One group that had been an opponent of DST in any form was organised labour, but even they passed a motion in favour of trying it out at a meeting in late February 1916.

March 21, 1916, Winnipeg Tribune

With this growing support, Shore and Queen reintroduced their DST motion on the floor of city council on March 20, 1916, and this time it narrowly won by a vote of 8 to 7.

It should be noted that municipalities in Canada didn't have the power to impose a time change on anything other than their own employees and offices. It required other companies, such as banks, retailers, professional offices, theatres, sports venues, the privately-owned streetcar company, etc., to follow along out of good will or the pressure of not wanting to be out of step with competitors that had joined "city time" or "fast time" as it was sometimes called.

It was known at the time of the vote that not everyone could join the new time. The city's railways and commodity exchanges had to stick to standard time to be in line with their networks. It was also found that some provincial bodies, such as the law courts and land titles office, had "central standard time" written into their legislation and had to operate during those hours until this was changed by lawmakers.

Despite these anomalies, the clocks were moved ahead by one hour starting on Sunday ,April 22, 1916, until the last Saturday in September.

April 3, 1916, Winnipeg Tribune

Some of the suburbs immediately surrounding Winnipeg joined DST to save confusion, but with rural areas and centres like Brandon and Selkirk opting against DST, it essentially gave Winnipeg - excluding its rail stations and yards - a time zone of its own.

There was little written about how DST went during that first summer. Signs are that people just got on with things. Some sports leagues and athletic clubs announced how pleased with the extra daylight. Some complained about having the railways working on a different time than their customers, both passenger and freight.

The Voice, Winnipeg's daily labour paper that had thousands of railway employees amongst its readers, looked forward to the last week of DST in a September 15, 1916, editorial. It said "it became quite plain after a short time that the majority of the people were not pleased with the arrangement", pointing out the frustration of railway employees and some of their customers. It finished by stating that "The conclusion of the matter may well be that the daylight saving scheme would be excellent if it could be made Dominion-wide."

Even Alderman John Queen, who helped bring forward the motion for the DST bylaw to city council earlier in the year, had to admit defeat. He said that it made little sense to carry on with the scheme unless it was done province or Dominion-wide.

In February 1917, Queen introduced a motion to repeal the DST bylaw and city council voted 14 to 1 in favour.

March 9, 1918, Winnipeg Tribune

The city found itself back on Daylight Saving Time in 1918 and 1919 after the federal government introduced national DST through a hotly contested Daylight Saving Bill. It was approved by the Senate on April 11, 1918 and introduced across the country on Sunday, April 14. 

There was less debate about DST in Winnipeg this time around. National DST is what many critics of the 1916 experiment wanted, citizens were used to being asked to "do their part" for the war effort, and the U.S.A. introduced its own national DST on March 31st. 

Acting Prime Minister Sir George Foster told the Commons in April 1920 that national DST was a thing of the past and it "was entirely a matter for the towns and villages which wished to adopt it."  Some cities stayed with it. Winnipeg did not.

March 24, 1927, WInnipeg Tribune

November 3, 1927, WInnipeg Free Press

The next time DST was on the city's agenda was in March 1927, when a 7,000-name petition was presented to city council calling for it to be reinstated.

It was organised by the Amateur Athletic Union, and many of the signatures were from people who operated or played in various summer sports leagues eager for extra sunlight. Several businesses also signed on, indicating that it was good for their trade, or the welfare of their employees. 

City council received the petition, but councillors knew there was not enough time to debate such a contentious issue and have it in place by the time summer began. Instead, they instructed the city clerk to make it a referendum question in November's civic election. (Civic elections were held annually back then.)

The vote took place on November 25th, 1927, and citizens voted 18,047 for and 19,277 against. DST did not return to Winnipeg the following year. 

March 25, 1937, WInnipeg Tribune

A decade later, DST was back at city hall. This time it was the city's health committee that led the charge, as there was a growing belief that the extra hour of sunlight in the evening led to people getting more sunlight on their skin and taking part in more recreational activities - from organised sports to gardening.

The committee heard from many delegations on the matter, and the lineup of groups for and against was similar to 1916. 

The largest organised opponent was the Trades and Labour Council, which followed followed the lead of its approximately ten thousand railway employees who did not want to revisit the frustration of working out of step with the rest of the city.

In favour were the Retail Merchants Association, Kiwanis Club (which ran many local parks and playgrounds), and a coalition of the city's summer sports leagues and athletic clubs.

In late March, the health committee voted  3-2 in favour of its DST motion and sent it on to city council for final debate and a vote. Council voted 10 to 8 in favour of reintroducing DST from April 25, 1937, to the last Saturday in September.

Rather than go through a DST debate each spring, an amendment was made to the bylaw that the continuation of DST for 1938 and beyond would be decided in a referendum in the November 1937 civic election.

November 1937 pro-DST ads in the Winnipeg Tribune

The only organised media was a handful of newspaper ads placed by the Winnipeg Daylight Saving Association, an informal group of sport-related organisations mixed in with some service clubs and retailers mixed in.

At a mid-November meeting at the St. Regis Hotel, it was mentioned that an extra 12,000 games of golf were played at the Windsor and Kildonan golf courses that summer, much of which was attributed to daylight saving. When you took into account the city's many soccer pitches, lacrosse fields and corner playgrounds, organisers argued, you had a profound impact on the well-being of local citizens.

The group adopted the slogan "Sunshine and Health" for its ads.

The main dissenter was Ernest Brotman, a lawyer who tried to challenge the city's authority to create a DST bylaw in the courts on behalf of some railway employees. He lost.  (It doesn't appear this was an official union or Labour Council challenge, just Brotman himself.)  

November 25, 1937, Winnipeg Tribune

The Winnipeg Tribune weighed in with an editorial that noted "There is no clear line of public advantage one way or another" with DST and that people would vote based on personal circumstance. Mothers of young children (who had to put their kids to bed early) and railway men were against it. Those involved in sports or gardening were in favour. "The business community is, on the whole, apathetic. It does not seem to affect business one way or another."

The Free Press ran a similar editorial that stated “Everyone has just had first-hand knowledge of how it (DST) works, its advantages and disadvantages…. And since the coming vote will doubtless settle the matter in Winnipeg for years to come, it is desirable that the opinions of the people should be fully registered.”

Both daily papers stated that they felt that the benefits of DST outweighed the disadvantages, but could see the other side of the issue as well.

The civic election took place on November 26, 1937, and the vote was 24,771 in favour and 30,927 against. DST in Winnipeg was again put on the back burner.

February 9, 1942, Winnipeg Tribune

Another Word War meant a return to national daylight saving. This time, it was to be year-round and was introduced on Sunday, February 8, 1942, to be in line with a similar bill passed in the U.S.A.

As with the previous wartime DST, there was little debate or opposition to its introduction. Most took it in stride as another sacrifice that needed to be made on the home front.

Gallup poll results, September 22, 1945, Winnipeg Tribune

When national DST ended in September 1945, municipalities were again left to decide whether or not to continue with it for 1946 and beyond. By this point, public opinion had very much shifted to the side of DST. 

Gallup, the national polling organisation, began taking opinion polls on Canadians' attitudes towards DST in 1943 with the question: "Which of the following would you like to see done about Daylight Saving: (a) Stay of Daylight Saving Time the year ‘round, as present; (b) Have Daylight Saving Time in the summer only; or (c) go back to standard time the year round."

It found that during the war years, 72 percent of Canadians supported DST for all or part of the year. In September 1945, when respondents knew that national DST was ending, 62 percent were still in favour of keeping it for all or part of the year.

There was a sharp divide between the 60 percent of those in rural areas who wanted to stay on standard time year-round, compared to just 19 percent in urban areas. This is interesting as "urban legend" says DST was brought in because of "the farmers". In fact, they were mostly opposed to any form of DST and wanted the clocks left alone. It was urbanites who wanted it!

April 26, 1946, Winnipeg Tribune

A new year brought about a familiar debate about whether to remain on DST for 1946.

Some familiar faces came out in favour of the issue. The Board of Trade polled its members and found that of 600 respondents, nearly 90 percent supported DST, and most of them noted that a majority of their employees wanted it as well. Golfers at the city's golf course presented a 1,000- name petition in favour of it. Kinsmen also passed a motion supporting it.

Opposition to DST was muted, likely because so many major cities voted to remain on summertime DST, or "fast time" as it was nicknamed. These included: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, New York, and Chicago. This meant that folks working in the banking industry, commodity exchanges, and stock exchanges would be on DST at least for the summer.

Railways said that due to the patchwork of time zones across North America, they would stay on standard time but make accommodations in large centres that were on DST to have employees not working directly with trains to work on DST hours. This didn't please the Trades and Labour Council, which came out against the time change unless it was country-wide.

Many centres out west, like Vancouver, Calgary, Prince Albert, Saskatoon, and Regina, voted for DST. Brandon and Dauphin followed Winnipeg's lead, as did many of its suburbs, such as St. James, Charleswood, St. Boniface, Fort Garry, and Brooklands. Transcona, a railway town, voted to stay on standard time to be in line with the CPR's official time. 

Due to the rural/ urban split, smaller towns that served large farming populations, like Russell, voted to stay on standard time, despite a delegation of 35 "townies" appearing at town council asking for DST.

April 25, 1946, Winnipeg Tribune

It was again the health committee of city council that led the way on the issue when, at its meeting of April 24, 1946, Alderman Jack St. John put forth a motion for the city to go on DST from May 12 to October 13.

The committee voted 3 to 1 to approve the motion and send it to council for further debate. The only dissenter was Ernest Brotman, the lawyer who challenged the 1937 bylaw in court, who was now an alderman.

The health committee's motion was put before city council by Alderman Hilda Hesson at its Monday, May 6, 1946, meeting and it passed by a vote of 12 - 3. Voting for were aldermen Simonite, Hesson, Glassco, Harvey, Black, Hollinquist, Scott, St. John, Simpkin, Blumberg, Scraba and Stepnuk. Against were Brotman, Forkin and Penner.

By the time clocks went forward, the school board and streetcar company stated that they would be ready to go on fast time.

The most confusion was at the provincial level as, yet again, some bodies and agencies had central standard time written into their legislation. The province said it would meet and determine how to amend the legislation quickly.

November 16, 1946, Winnipeg Tribune

Many on city council were not looking forward to debating Daylight Saving Time every spring for the foreseeable future, so at its meeting of May 20, 1946, it passed a motion presented by Alderman John Blumberg to hold a referendum at the November 1946 civic election asking citizens to vote for or against seasonal DST on a permanent basis.

The most contentious issue was whether or not the referendum question should mention specific dates, or be left open for city council to adjust it in the future to be in line with other communities. The ad hoc system used in 1946 saw many municipalities going on and off DST different weeks. It was agreed to keep the dates open (see above for the text) and for the city to try to reach a consensus with nearby communities to share the same start and end dates.

The referendum was open to both landowners and non-landowners, and was held on Friday, November 22, 1946. There were 46,428 votes in favour, 20,190 against, and 4,622 rejected ballots. Why there were so many rejected ballots confused the pundits.

Winnipeggers spoke, and the city would continue on seasonal DST for 1947 and the foreseeable future.

April 25, 1963, Winnipeg Tribune

Fast forward fifteen years, and Winnipeg and some other urban centres in Manitoba were on DST, but the dates didn't match up.

Winnipeg, its surrounding suburbs, and Selkirk had DST from April 23 to October 27. Brandon was from June 1 to August 31. Portage la Prairie was from April 23 to the last Sunday in September. It's unclear why they couldn't agree on standard dates, but it may have been a way of trying to appease both urban dwellers and farmers by having DST in place for as short a period as possible.

In the February 1963 Speech from the Throne, Premier Duff Roblin announced that his government would implement province-wide DST to put everyone in the province on the same time throughout the year.

In a rare Saturday sitting on May 4, 1963, the legislature voted 36 to 15 in favour of the Official Time Act, which brought in province-wide DST from May 15 until the Sunday following the Labour Day weekend. In other words, it tried to compromise with a four-and-a-half week DST to try to appeal to both urban dwellers and farmers.

Debate in the house and public opinion created interesting compromises. Some who were against DST supported the move as at least everyone in the province would be on the same time. Some who were in favour of DST rejected it as the shorter time period put it out of synch with the six months of Standard Time followed to the east, which messed up train, television and radio schedules for six weeks.

The new time was so unpopular that in March 1965, the Roblin government amended the act that allowed Metro Winnipeg, the old City of Winnipeg and its surrounding municipalities, to choose six months of DST from April 24 to October 30, as it used to follow, and rural municipalities had the option of sticking with the old four and a half week period or the new six week period. It essentially legislated the province back to nearly the same situation it was in before the province got involved.

January 31, 1967, Winnipeg Tribune

In January 1967, even the Roblin government was frustrated with the patchwork of time zones and introduced amendments to the Official Time Act to put all of Manitoba on DST from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. This length put it in line with major jurisdictions in North America.

Opposition was scattered, mostly letters to the editor from individuals, some rural school trustees and MLAs, and farmers' groups like the National Farmers Union.

A small group of rural MLAs tried to amend the legislation to shorten the DST period but were defeated by the government. Roblin said at the time, "It is quite evident that no matter what we do, we are not going to get an act which will please everyone."

April 29, 1967, Winnipeg Tribune

The new Official Time Act was passed into law, and on April 30, 1967, the entire province sprang ahead in unison until the last Sunday in October. This formula remained the same until the act was amended in July 1987 to start DST earlier on the first Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October.

In April 2026, Premier Wab Kinew told reporters that the practice of province-wide DST could be a thing of the past as early as 2027. Some covering the story assumed that meant no more DST anywhere in Manitoba forever. The past 110 years shows us that this may not be the case!

UPDATE: The Manitoba government launched an online survey to gauge the opinions of Manitobans about the future of province-wide PST On May 20, 2026.