Time Zones in Canada

From west to east, Canada’s six different time zones are: Pacific, Mountain, Central, Eastern, Atlantic and Newfoundland. Up to the 1880s, cities and towns used their own local solar time which could vary from place to place. That was fine when people didn’t travel far, but once the railways allowed quicker travel over long distances, all the local times became confusing.

Sir Sandford Fleming, who became chief engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway, missed a train because of timing confusion. He promoted the idea of standard times around the world and when finally adopted became a system which helped people tremendously in travel and communications.

Study this more in-depth with our 3 lesson unit study on Time Zones in Canada for all ages. This a PDF download and includes a membership with curated third-party information.