Manitobans should start planning to ignore their mobile devices

The government of Manitoba has just decided to remain on daylight saving time permanently, notwithstanding the clock change scheduled for November 1st:

After listening to the views of Manitobans on seasonal time changes, the Manitoba government has decided to remain on daylight saving time (DST) permanently, Premier Wab Kinew announced today.

“We heard from Manitobans loud and clear – no more changing the clocks in Manitoba,” said Kinew. “Permanent daylight saving time is good for our health, good for business and good for parents. For families, especially those with young kids, that one-hour shift can disrupt sleep and routines for days. This change means one less adjustment families have to deal with each spring and fall. That’s why this November, your clocks won’t be changing.”

This change means Manitobans’ clocks will not revert to standard time on Nov. 1. Manitoba joins several other provinces and territories that have adopted or are moving toward a permanent time including British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

OK, so, here's the thing, my Prairie Province friends: your mobile phones won't get the memo for a while.

I have contributed to and followed all the debates in the IANA Time Zone committee for over 20 years now. This sort of thing has come up before, usually when Ramadan overlaps a time change. November 1st is 45 days away, which is about (checks notes) about 135 days more quickly than mobile phone providers can guarantee that everyone's phones have the latest time zone database updates. And since this just happened today¹, despite the TZDB committee rushing out a patch by tomorrow, I can guarantee that tens of thousands of Canadian mobile phones will switch back to standard time on November 1st and confuse the hell out of people who are already confused about how time works.

Oh, and let's pause for a moment to think about the 10:09 am sunrise in Churchill, Man. on Christmas morning to go along with the 9:50 am sunrise in Edmonton and 9:06 am in Vancouver. Seattle's sunrise Christmas morning will still be before 8 am, but just barely. Of course, in reality, the sun rises in Seattle just 12 minutes before it rises in Vancouver that day, so...not actually a real thing, clocks.

Even funnier, parts of Ontario are west of Manitoba, so during the winter months, clocks will show an hour earlier in Lake of the Woods than in Churchill, despite being almost due south of it.

Guys: Daylight saving time exists for a good reason. The closer you get to the poles, the more benefit you get from DST in the summer and the more trouble you get from it in the winter.

Canada has done so many things right in the past 18 months, why are they punching themselves in the nose with this crap?