I grew up in a region of the province that never changed its time in the fall and spring. We still felt its effects: every fall our TV shows would air an hour earlier than before, and when we traveled to Alberta to watch movies, we had to do the math to establish arrival time. I grew up thinking about what a nuisance this was. Then I moved to Vancouver, and now I’m one of those people whom I used to look upon with amusement.
A couple weeks ago, we again moved our clocks back an hour. Why in the name of Father Time are we still doing this? Someone please tell me. Daylight Savings Time (DST) is an archaic remnant of World War One. Germany used it to conserve wartime fuel. It spread to other nations during the War, which many dropped it until WWII then picked it up again. BC adopted it through a 1952 Plebiscite; yes, the same sort of plebiscite that Metro-Vancouverites just stressed over for the Transit funding.
This means there is no binding law stating we all have to follow DST in BC. According to section 26 of the Interpretations Act of 1996, the Lieutenant Governor in Council in BC has the power to regulate the times and days for Daylight Savings Time.
There is no binding law stating we all have to follow DST in BC.
As an example of how easy it is to drop DST, this past spring the town council of Fort Nelson voted to stay with the rest of The Peace River Region in not observing the time change.
Every year ICBC shows that there are more crashes and accidents during the switch, mainly in the spring when we lose an hour of sleep. BC Hydro can tell you that any power we might save with DST is negligible due to our latitude in North America. We don’t turn our lights on in the morning, instead we turn them on earlier in the evening. There is no power saving, just a shift in time use.
Could external trade be a reason to keep DST? This past year the states of Washington and Oregon put forth bills to abolish DST; BC said it would not follow. Alberta is already an hour ahead, so in the Fall they would be the same time as us. Our port trade with International partners won’t make a difference because they are multiple hours difference from us and some don’t use DST themselves. No, trade is not an excuse.
The time changes every year are ridiculous and redundant. It’s as if to say that by cutting a foot off the top of a blanket and sewing it to the bottom you make a longer blanket. Though in reality nothing has changed except where the blanket lays.
There is no longer a valid reason to maintain Daylight Savings and there are far better ways we can influence energy consumption and saving. Best of all, to ditch DST, we do not need to change any laws — all we need to do is change with the times.
