One of the people behind the ‘Stop the Time Change’ movement is surprised by the number of responses a week into a government survey on daylight saving time.

The province says there have been over 158,000 responses so far, and Bob Dieno says daylight saving time is a topic that people are passionate about.

“Over the last four years in doing this and promoting it and talking with people, it’s amazed us how truly passionate people are and how much they will put their name out and talk to other people about it,” he said.

In fact, the province says the number of responses one week in has far exceeded other recent polls, including over 19,000 responses over cannabis regulations.

“With cannabis, a lot of people are afraid to say anything about it. It’s got a stigma around it, but the time change I think, it’s a really harmless type thing in speaking out, and it really really shows that British Columbians, I’m assuming are opposed to it,” Dieno noted.

“I don’t think a lot of people would be responding if they wanted to keep the time change the same way.”

The question he is most anxious to see the response to is the one which asked if the province should change time with or without the US states of Washington, Oregon and California.

“Because most of the people I’ve talked to have said, ‘who cares what anybody else is doing, let BC be a leader not a follower,'” Dieno noted. “If that’s what the people of BC want, just do it on your own. It’s okay to be out of time with the other states.”

He is encouraging more people to have their say before the survey ends on July 19.