The measurement of time before the coming of the railways was a local matter with towns and cities establishing their own " time zones " . There was little coordination of times between cities or regions in Canada or elsewhere in the world . Train travel revealed the shortcomings of this arrangement for it quickly led to problems related to the scheduling of arrivals and departures from different cities . A Canadian engineer , Sandford Fleming , proposed a coordinated worldwide time system at a meeting in Toronto of the Royal Canadian Institute in 1879 . His idea was accepted at the International Meridian Conference of 1884
International Meridian Conference
International Meridian Conference
Technological and industrial history of Canada