How will the change to standard time go for you this weekend? How will your body and health respond to the overnight jolt of first giving you an extra hour of sleep, only to give you an early nighttime the next afternoon, moving earlier and earlier until it is dark by 4:30 late in December? Not to mention the data from studies showing increased accidents, heart attacks, strokes and deaths over the two to four weeks after the clock change each year.
I propose that Nelson and larger region go the way that voters in Creston, and communities in the BC Peace region have done: remain on Pacific Daylight Time (Mountain Standard Time) year round.
Last year Bob Dieno and Tara Holmes of Kamloops were the subject of an online CBC article: “B.C. petitioners hope Sunday’s time change is one of the last.” The duo gathered over 27,000 signatures and the support from the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce.
In the morning most people get up and get ready for their day at work, school and other activities and schedules.
It is after school, work, etc. that I believe most would relish the extra hour of natural light.
For Nelson, whether one calls it Pacific Daylight or Mountain Standard, we would have an extra hour of afternoon light, early November to early March, that we do not have now. At the shortest time of daylight in December, we’d have first light by 8 a.m., but night wouldn’t begin until 5:30 p.m. or later, instead of a 3:50 p.m. sunset that we have now (sunrisesunset.com/canada).
Since the Nelson trade area includes the region from Kaslo to Rossland and New Denver to Salmo, I think all the region should join Creston in stopping the clock switch and enjoying more evening winter light.
Joe Woodward
Nelson