Canadians Split On Shift To U.S. Daylight Saving Time

Toronto, ON - Following Presidential approval this past Monday of legislation that will lengthen the daylights savings calendar in the United States by one month (moved three weeks earlier in Spring to the second Sunday in March, and one week longer in the fall to the first Sunday in November) in the efforts of saving energy, a new Ipsos-Reid survey reports that Canadians are split as to whether we should follow suit and likewise change our daylight savings timeline to match the Americans' new schedule.

The survey, provided exclusively to CanWest/Global and conducted among 1000 Canadians, posed a question as to whether or not Canadians feel we should change daylights savings time to follow the United States (since several operations could be affected if Canada and the U.S. daylight savings time aren't in sync including airlines, manufacturers, the financial sector and television stations) or whether they believe we should not make the switch (as many parents do not want their children to be forced to leave for school in the dark and farmers' operations may be affected).

Half of Canadians say they believe we should "change" (47%) our calendar and follow suit to match the United States, while the other half (50%) believe that regardless of the American change we should keep our daylight saving schedule the same. The remaining 3% of Canadians "don't know" if we should change it or not.

• The highest levels of support for changing daylight savings time are among residents of Quebec (53%), followed by Ontario, which is split 48% on each side.
• The highest levels of support for keeping daylight savings the same are among residents of Atlantic Canada (60%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (59%), Alberta (56%) and British Columbia (55%).
• Younger adults aged 18-34 are significantly more likely than those aged 35 and over to feel Canada should keep daylights savings the same (57% vs. 47%).
• Women are more likely than men to believe we should keep daylight savings the same (54% vs. 45%).

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll provided exclusively to CanWest/Global and conducted from August 9th to August 11th, 2005. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1000 adult Canadians were interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 1773.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid
416.324.2900
[email protected]

Ipsos-Reid
Ipsos-Reid is Canada's market intelligence leader and the country's leading provider of public opinion research. With operations in eight cities, Ipsos-Reid employs more than 300 researcher professionals and support staff in Canada. The company has the biggest network of telephone call centres in Canada, as well as the largest pre-recruited household and on-line panels. Ipsos-Reid's Canadian marketing research and public affairs practices are staffed with seasoned research consultants with extensive industry-specific backgrounds, offering the premier suite of research vehicles in Canada--including the Ipsos Trend Report, the leading source of public opinion in the country--all of which provide clients with actionable and relevant information. Ipsos-Reid is an Ipsos company, a leading global survey-based market research group.

To learn more, please visit www.ipsos.ca.

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