On 2026-07-31 11:43, Patrick McNeil via tz wrote:
In the same way you would not expect an Angeleno to identify as being on Mountain Time when opting out of DST, Albertans universally consider themselves on Mountain Time (MDT/MST), not Central Time. A numerical offset of "-06" would be preferable to "CST".
It's a tricky business. If all North America changed, numerical offsets would make sense, and that's what I proposed in my SPECULATIVE patch[1]. If just one location changed, though, it'd be odd to have it alone use numeric abbreviations, and that's why when Yukon went one time zone east in 2020 we changed its abbreviation to "MST" and that worked well enough - at least, nobody complained here. With BC, Alberta and NWT all moving one time zone east, though, we're in an in-between situation. The pull of the "CST"s and "MST"s to the east and south is significant, and it's odd to use numeric abbreviations when they don't. But the oddity you mention is real too. Perhaps we should switch those three regions to use numeric offsets. (Obviously we shouldn't do it for just Alberta.) [1]: https://lists.iana.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/thread/NVBXCY76HLJ635SI5BZU7MB2B6NTQBRA/
