Letter: Do we really want daylight saving time?

By Letter to the Editor on March 19, 2021.

Dear editor,

It’s good to see Kenton Shilka raising the issue of daylight saving time again in Tuesday’s column. But most Albertans would disagree with him on staying status quo. In fact, if status quo had been the decision in 1967, when DST was first introduced in Alberta, we’d still be on Mountain Standard Time year-round.

It is submitted that the issue is not really Standard versus Daylight time, as most people probably do not have strong opinions on one over the other. What seems to be almost unanimously agreed upon is people don’t like changing the time, mostly in the spring, but also in the fall. People want to stay on one or the other time year-round.

So that leaves the real question, do we want standard time, or daylight time? It is submitted that if this conversation were being held last August, most people would have just said, let’s not go back. People would’ve been satisfied staying on DST.

To be sure in the summer time, here north of the 49th parallel, the issue of DST is really moot, because with our long twilight hours, there is no shortage of daylight, morning or evening.

But in the winter it’s not so simple. As we approach the winter solstice, it’s dark morning and evening. People already go to school and work in the dark, so the extra daylight in the morning when we reverted back to Standard time, was more or less lost to useful outside activity. However our society tends to socialize in the evening, and leaving the extra hour of daylight in the evening makes good sense. Children would have extra time to play outdoors after school. Who goes skating at a community rink, or shopping at 7 a.m.?

So, it is hoped that the government will move on eliminating the twice-annual time change this fall, because recent polls suggest most people would prefer daylight time. So Mr. Shilka, what’s the big deal not changing time twice a year as you prefer? It’s just “one small hour.”

Lutz Perschon

Medicine Hat