On the ballot: Should Albertans eliminate the clock change twice a year? | The Canadian News

When Albertans head to the polls in October, they will be faced with several questions from the referendum, including an end to the practice of jumping forward and backward.

The official question on the ballot: “Do you want Alberta to adopt daylight saving time, which is daylight saving time, eliminating the need to change our clocks twice a year?”

According to the province, the decision to add the question to the ballot came after results from a 2019 survey of 141,000 Albertans showed 91 percent of respondents were in favor of moving to permanent daylight saving time. .

“Personally, I don’t care, but for the sake of my kids, it’s hard for them, so if we could keep it the same, that would be great,” Pamela Quinn told Global News. “For school and bedtime, it would be easier if we could keep it the same.”

But some Albertans don’t want to end the semi-annual time change.

“I think they should keep it as is, not change it,” said Brendon Zelisq.

Calgarian Blaire Cook said he is indifferent to the ballot question, adding that he has changed his clocks twice a year for his entire life.

“We wouldn’t care if they changed it or if it stayed the same,” he said.

However, Michael Antle, a chronobiologist at the University of Calgary, believes that the change to permanent daylight saving time would be a much more difficult adjustment than the weeks after a time change.

“Workers in the morning will be tired, drivers in the morning will be tired, students at school will have a really bad time,” Antle told Global News.

According to Antle, the change would be felt in winter with sunrises an hour later in Alberta and even later in the northernmost regions of the province.

“One of the problems we have living this far north is seasonal affective disorder, seasonal depression, and a lot of that comes from a lack of light, and specifically, it’s the morning light that our circadian clock requires,” Antle said. .

“We will miss that fundamental part, our clocks are running a bit slow and need morning light to keep them on Alberta time.”

Last year, the Yukon announced the change to permanent daylight saving time, while Saskatchewan eliminated the time changes in 1966 and observes Central Standard Time throughout the year.

Russia also adopted daylight saving time in 2012, but changed it two years later. According to Antle, two long and harsh winters led the country to switch to standard time.

Antle also noticed a similar situation in the United States during the 1973 energy crisis, but returned to the earlier practice midway through the first winter after the change.

“In reality, a significant number of children died waiting for the bus in the morning,” Antle said. “People have attributed it to driving in the dark, but it is actually driving drowsy. That’s the problem.”

Alberta had previously explored the idea of ​​adopting permanent daylight saving time under the previous NDP government, but scrapped the idea after concerns raised by the airline industry, ski resorts, and even professional sports leagues.

According to the province, the vote on the issue of the time change on October 18 “will be binding.”

“Execution decisions will not be made prior to the referendum outcome,” Service Alberta ministry spokesman Taylor Hides said in a statement. “Any decisions that are made will balance the will of Albertans, the concerns of the business community and the broader context of what other governments are considering.”

Meanwhile, Antle is pushing against voting “yes” on the ballot question, adding that he would prefer that the province consider switching to standard time.

“Standard time is the most natural, it’s where our clock on the wall matches the sun best,” Antle said. “Our biological clock or circadian clock follows the sun, it will do so no matter what the clock on the wall says. So you should try to minimize the conflict between what the clock on the wall says and what the sun does. “

–with files from Adam Toy of Global News