Let’s stop worrying and learn to love the time change

A petition has been circulating for several years to get rid of it. The Stop the Time Change group, headquartered in Kamloops, calls itself a “movement.”

It got some important support in September from the Union of B.C. Municipalities, which narrowly approved a resolution calling for the time change to be scrapped.

Even the B.C. Chamber of Commerce supports getting rid of it and sticking with Daylight Saving Time year-round.

Those wanting to end the annual re-setting of clocks claim the sleep loss increases heart attacks, workplace accidents and automobile crashes. But, of course, there are a lot of reasons for sleep deprivation and Daylight Saving Time is hardly at the top of the list.

On the other hand, the rationale for DST has changed out of convenience over the years, from the need for more daylight to play golf in the evenings to more time to dig coal and make guns in times of war.

Basically, though, it’s just nice to have more daylight on a summer’s evening and more when we wake up in the winter.

At any rate, it’s all academic for the moment — Premier John Horgan has opted for the status quo. He says there isn’t enough support for abolition and, besides, we’d be out of synch with Washington, Oregon and California.

Of course, we’re already out of synch with any jurisdiction in a different time zone, but never mind. Bottom line is there’s no compelling reason to do away with the time change, so let’s stop fretting about it.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

by Armchair Mayor

Let’s stop worrying and learn to love the time change

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