British Columbia Permanently Stops Changing Its Clocks — While Germany and the EU Continue

Published October 19, 2026 — the week before Germany's time change on October 25 — the Berliner Zeitung examined British Columbia's decision to permanently adopt year-round Pacific Time (UTC−7) from March 2026. Premier David Eby announced the move with a theatrical press conference featuring dancing. The province had voted for the change in a 2019 survey in which 93% of roughly 223,000 participants backed ending the clock change, but implementation was delayed waiting for US states to follow suit. The result is a one-hour winter gap between BC and neighbouring Washington state. In the EU, debate about abolishing the biannual switch has run since 2018, but member states have not reached consensus; the European Commission has published time-change dates through 2031 and is expected to deliver a new impact study by year-end. Several countries — Iceland, Russia, Belarus, and Turkey — have already dropped the shift. Ukraine's parliament has also approved abolition but the president had not yet signed it. Germany and the rest of the EU switch back to winter time on October 25, 2026.