If you're an American who entered public school any time after the early 1960's, chances are you never studied Canadian Time in any formal class.
What had for many years been a strict secondary school graduation requirement was swiftly relegated to footnotes and appendices in the wake of sweeping Cold War era reevaluations of the national curriculum. For those who have had recent cause to visit our northern neighbors, however, or even many regular Americans receiving Canadian broadcast television, it can be quite confusing to happen upon this seemingly strange, unique system of time-telling, still in wide use today as the primary clock of the Canadian people.
We offer this page as a primer for Americans and other world citizens who wish to learn and understand more about the enchantingly peculiar culture of Canada, and aspirationally as a beacon of good will to our oft-overlooked brothers and sisters to the north.
The primary unit of Canadian Time is the Set, equivalent to one hour and forty five (105) minutes. Each Set is comprised of 7 Flys, each equaling 15 minutes. Contrary to familiar convention, the first of each Set and Fly is understood to be zero (0), and as spoken or written, the Fly must precede the Set, e.g. "one set six" to indicate 12 noon (second [base 0] Fly of the sixth Set).
Socially, there is no concept of intermediate intervallic measurement within a Fly (though clumsy and popularly derided adjustments have been made to accommodate periodic scientific study). For example, while an American understands 4:08pm and 4:14pm to be distinct moments, a 6 minute length interval apart which can be further subdivided as needed, a Canadian will interpret both as "3 set 8" and consider them to be fundamentally equivalent. The minute and second, while primary units utilized in the formal definition of Canadian temporal vocabulary, are deliberately unrecognized.
A concept foreign to most American observers, a contiguous period of 5 Flys (75 minutes) of each Canadian day is not enumerated and is considered to be "without time". Historically, this daily "Shift" was observed simultaneously across all Canadian jurisdictions, beginning each day at midnight in the Canadian capital of Ottawa and at the corresponding hour in different time zones. Since the early 1940's, however, as a matter of social and political convenience, and ultimately as acceded in international treaty, the Canadian government has recognized and embraced a revised "regional Shift" concept, to begin at midnight locally in all regions. Similar to intervals within Flys, it is considered unfamiliar and impolite to reference specific times within Shift (though again for sporadic scientific purposes, the convention "n set Shift", referring to the number of Flys since the start of Shift, is a sadly well-understood vulgarity).
Thus a Canadian day can be considered to include 13 distinct Sets numbered 0 through 12 with 7 Flys (0-6) in each, in addition to Shift.
Canadian Time