A 2021 non-binding referendum in Canada's Province Of Alberta posed the following question: "Do you want Alberta to adopt year-round Daylight Saving Time, which is summer hours, eliminating the need to change our clocks twice a year?" This confused a lot of voters, many of whom wondered why only the Daylight Saving Time option was given. This was therefore a leading question and pretty-well destined to fail. An ideal, neutral question would have asked whether the practice of changing clocks twice a year should be ended.
The province of Ontario passed some legislation that made perma-DST the time system. It hasn't been implemented as it was conditional on the province of Quebec and New York state doing the same thing.
I do not think there was any consultation with chronobiologists or other medical or scientific experts.
A neutral question would have presented the 3 options: DST as done currently, permanent summer time or permanent winter time.
Asking only about ending time changes is equally problematic. Some people would rather stay with the DST system than use winter time all year long for example.
I'm all for ending the switchover, but what's the big difference between permanent DST vs. Standard Time? Is it just because people have to work 9 to 5? Is 10 to 6 not an option?
Interestingly, when they ended the time change in Russia in 2011, they first went with permanent DST, but then after a few years switched back to permanent Standard Time in 2014.
> but what's the big difference between permanent DST vs. Standard Time?
From the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms:
> To answer this we need to understand how our body clock works. We each have an internal clock, or circadian rhythm, which works to align your body rhythms with the 24-hour cycle of sunlight and darkness that we experience living on Earth. The light that you are exposed to each day travels through your eyes and signals your brain to set your clock to help you stay awake during the day and sleep at night. It’s the timing of these light signals that is most critical for keeping everything running, well, like clockwork. When you are exposed to the bright light of a sunrise in the morning, it helps your circadian rhythm wake you up. When you are exposed to bright light in the evening, however, it signals your body to stay awake, leading to later sleep and wake times.
> Biological rhythms are everywhere. The daily changes in sleep and wakefulness, annual bird migration, and the tidal variations in behavior of coastal animals: these are all examples of biological rhythms. The field of chronobiology studies these rhythms in living organisms and how they are tuned by cues from the outside world.
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> Circadian rhythms (rhythms that repeat approximately every 24 hours) are the most prominent biological rhythms. Not only sleep and wakefulness are influenced by circadian rhythms, also many other bodily functions show a circadian rhythm, such as body temperature, the secretion of hormones, and metabolism, and organ function. These rhythms allow organisms to anticipate and adapt to cyclic changes in the environment that are caused by the daily rotation of the Earth on its axis.
I thought they made their case quite clear on that site. TL;DR their case is that having the sun at its apex as close as possible to midday is best for wellbeing.