Half an hour later in Newfoundland (or is it?)

Anyone who grew up in Canada will recognize “half an hour later in Newfoundland” as a regular part of CBC schedule announcements. It’s become a sort of national shorthand to illustrate how different Newfoundland is from the rest of Canada, and how quirky Newfoundlanders are to have a time zone that’s measured in half hours.

So when we arrived at the Deer Lake Airport on April 10, you might expect that we would have moved our clocks ahead a half an hour. But we actually had to move them ahead 1 1/2 hours. When it’s 6 pm in Toronto or New York, it’s 7:30 pm in Newfoundland. So why does CBC say “half an hour” when it’s really “an hour and a half”? This really confused me when I turned on the radio and TV in our quarantine cottage, so I decided to do a little research into the whole time zone thing, and this is what I found out.

#1 – Newfoundland Time was created before the province joined Confederation

Newfoundland came into Confederation in 1949 with its own time zone. In 1963, the provincial government proposed a switch to the Atlantic Time Zone, for consistency with the other Atlantic provinces, but stiff public opposition prevented the proposal from moving forward. It has not been proposed since, reinforcing the “Newfoundlanders are quirky” argument.

#2 – Even though the province includes Newfoundland and Labrador, only parts of Labrador follow Newfoundland Time

Officially, the whole province observes Newfoundland Time. But in reality, only the island of Newfoundland and a small part of Labrador that is closest to Newfoundland observes it; the rest of Labrador observes Atlantic Time.

#3 – Some CBC programs air 1/2 hour later than in Ontario, some air 1 1/2 hours later, and almost all other programming is 1 1/2 hours later

This is where it gets really confusing. Having lived in Hamilton, I am used to the CBC Radio News at Six airing at 6 pm, and Hockey Night in Canada starting at 7 pm. But here, the News at Six airs at 6:30 pm, and Hockey Night in Canada at 8:30 pm. Why the difference?

The hockey game starts at 8:30 pm because it’s a live broadcast, happening in real time. Any live programming that originates in the Eastern Time Zone is 1 1/2 hours later here. Makes sense.

But CBC adjusts its broadcasts so that the News at Six and other regularly-aired national programs air at the right time. So the News at Six is heard by people in Halifax, for example, at 6 pm Halifax time. It’s heard by Hamiltonians at 6 pm Hamilton time. And so on.

Except in Newfoundland. Newfoundland receives its broadcast feeds from Nova Scotia, and so the News at Six, heard at 6 pm in Halifax, is heard at 6:30 pm in Newfoundland. This is where the “half an hour later in Newfoundland” comes from.

Almost all other programming is 1 1/2 hours behind. So Jeopardy, which I used to watch with my mom at 7:30 pm, doesn’t air in Newfoundland until 9 pm! That just seems wrong to me.

#4 – There are other parts of the world with time zones measured by the half hour, and even by the quarter hour!

Newfoundland is not the only place with a half-hour based time zone. Others include: India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, and parts of Australia. And Tibet has a quarter-hour based time zone.

There’s other weird time zone stuff too, like how China has one time zone even though geographically, it spans more than 3 time zones. That makes for some pretty dark mornings in western China.

#5 – It gets even weirder when you travel from Newfoundland to St. Pierre and Miquelon.

Travelling by ferry from Fortune, Newfoundland to the French-owned islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon is only a 19-km trip westward. But St. Pierre and Miquelon are 1/2 hour ahead of Newfoundland, making it one of the few places in the world where time moves forward as you move westward geographically. For example, if you could travel instantaneously from St. John’s to Halifax, you would leave St. John’s at 8 am and arrive in Halifax at 7:30 am. But if you travelled instantaneously from St. John’s to St. Pierre, you would leave St. John’s at 8 am and arrive in St. Pierre at 8:30 am — even though, in both cases, you are moving westward. Très bizarre, non?