害羞草研究所

Skip to content

B.C. VIEWS: Get up earlier, Americans control your clock too

B.C. must wait for Trump to decide on Daylight Saving Time
15890332_web1_20190310-BPD-Oppal-scrum-09
B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal takes questions from reporters at the B.C. legislature, 2009. (Tom Fletcher/Black Press)

So how was 害羞草研究所渟pring forward害羞草研究所 for you this year? The annual ritual of giving back the hour you borrowed from the green gods of time last fall isn害羞草研究所檛 popular, especially with parents.

As the Associated Press reported last spring, it害羞草研究所檚 not popular with cows either. Dairy farmer Katie Dotterer-Pyle and her husband David Pyle milk 350 cows on their Maryland farm, and she says they are also creatures of routine: 害羞草研究所淎 few of them are just a little confused about what害羞草研究所檚 going on.害羞草研究所

I cite an American source for a reason. Just as U.S.-backed environmentalists decide our aquaculture and oil and gas policies for us, and their lumber barons keep our forest industry on a short leash, American governments control our time too.

Premier John Horgan confirmed this again last week, sending letters to the governors of California, Oregon and his anti-pipeline pal Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, asking them to keep him in the loop on their efforts to move to daylight saving time all year around.

B.C. could do it tomorrow on its own, but U.S. states are subject to federal law. The three western states have legislation in process to seek an exemption from the Donald Trump administration to adopt Pacific Daylight Time permanently.

害羞草研究所淲e have too many economic ties, too many social and cultural ties to have one or two jurisdictions out of sync with the others,害羞草研究所 Horgan said.

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

The Americans decided to move 害羞草研究所渟pring forward害羞草研究所 backward in 2005. B.C.害羞草研究所檚 then-attorney general Wally Oppal surrendered to the American will, moving 害羞草研究所渟pring forward害羞草研究所 from April to the second Sunday in March effective in 2007.

Oppal said he would consult the public mood first, but with Ontario and Manitoba already saluting to the south, there wasn害羞草研究所檛 much he could do. He was concerned about kids going to school in the dark, though. He feels you, as Horgan does today, and that means exactly what it usually means.

Daylight saving time was first proposed in 1907, when British builder William Willit circulated a pamphlet called 害羞草研究所淎 Waste of Daylight.害羞草研究所 It was first implemented during World War I to save fuel. But critics argue it害羞草研究所檚 a false economy, costing more in the morning.

One prominent critic in 2005 was UBC professor Stanley Coren, an expert in sleep effects. His study of Canadian traffic accidents in 1991 and 1992 found an eight per cent jump on the Monday after clocks were moved ahead. Coren害羞草研究所檚 research suggested that time change effects on sleep can persist for up to five days.

Regular readers will know I am not a fan of Americans controlling our politics and culture. It is now almost 50 years since a fellow named Pierre Trudeau decided Canada should get with modern times and adopt the metric system.

Perhaps you害羞草研究所檝e noticed that this has failed. Our ever-vigilant national media, for example, have given up even trying to use metric. We all talk American now, which is fine, because as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has explained, Canada is the world害羞草研究所檚 first 害羞草研究所減ost-national state.害羞草研究所

I have this on the authority of The New York Times Magazine, which lovingly profiled our prime minister in 2016.

So you can forget this idea of setting our own clocks (barring of course the stubborn autonomous regions of the East Kootenay and the territory around my former home town of Dawson Creek.)

Get up and get the kids to school in the dark, until Trump says differently.

Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press Media. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca



tfletcher@blackpress.ca

Like us on and follow us on .





(or

害羞草研究所

) document.head.appendChild(flippScript); window.flippxp = window.flippxp || {run: []}; window.flippxp.run.push(function() { window.flippxp.registerSlot("#flipp-ux-slot-ssdaw212", "Black Press Media Standard", 1281409, [312035]); }); }