Now that we have survived the semi-annual time change, wouldn鈥檛 it be nice if we never had to do it again? Let鈥檚 summon the courage to make daylight time the only time, and stop this antiquated ritual. Changing the clocks twice a year is an annoyance that doesn鈥檛 serve any useful purpose.
The modern notion of daylight time goes back to Benjamin Franklin, although the ancients, including the Romans, tinkered with time from season to season. The idea was to make the most use of natural daylight, particularly in countries farthest away from the equator.
Canada can claim the dubious honour of having kicked off the daylight time craze when Thunder Bay introduced it in 1908. However, Germany was the first country to make the shift nationwide, which it did on April 30, 1916.
When it spread to other countries in the second half of the First World War, it was a war measure to reduce the amount of fuel used to produce electricity for lighting. It was repealed in most places after the war and restored during the Second World War.
Today, it鈥檚 a patchwork. More than 60 per cent of the countries in the world don鈥檛 use daylight time. They are on standard time all year.
Saskatchewan is the only 91原创 province that has it right, having one time all year round. Parts of B.C. and other provinces have also stuck with a single time. Most of Arizona does the same. Those areas all opted for standard time, but we could try persuading them to come with us to 12 months of daylight time.
The major argument against banning the time change is that the Americans haven鈥檛 done it, and it would cost us 25 per cent of our gross national product to be out of sync with our largest trading partner.
So, let鈥檚 lobby them, too. It doesn鈥檛 make any more sense for the U.S. than it does for us to hang onto the current system. Less, in fact, because they are farther south.
A survey in 2013 found only 37 per cent of people in the U.S. saw a point in daylight time, down from 45 per cent the previous year.
Surely it鈥檚 not daylight time that鈥檚 the problem, but the change from one to the other.
Why go with daylight time all year, rather than standard time? Because dark winter mornings are a writeoff anyway, and the extra hour of daylight in the spring and summer has advantages.
Tourism groups like daylight time because it gets people out more often in the evening, which means they shop, go to concerts and attend festivals.
A study by University College London and Britain鈥檚 Transport Research Laboratory concluded that transferring one hour of daylight from the morning to the evening would reduce the number of people killed and injured in traffic crashes.
In Canada and the U.S., we are on daylight time much longer than we are on standard time. This year, daylight time will last 34 weeks, so standard time isn鈥檛 really the standard.
And using daylight time all year wouldn鈥檛 be new. Canada and the U.S. were on daylight time year-round throughout the Second World War.
This year marks 100 years since Germany made time changes the norm. The centennial would be a good time to kiss time changes goodbye.
