Canadians in most parts of the country will be setting back their clocks this weekend, but a British Columbia man who says he is sick of all the springing forward and falling back wants to bring an end to the clock-changing tradition.
Kamloops businessman Bob Dieno has launched an online petition to get B.C. to stick with just Daylight Time all year long. He says the clock-changing has bothered him for 20 years.
"It goes back to me sleeping in and missing an exam,” he told CTV Vancouver.
Dieno says while it is irritating enough to have to change all his clocks at home, at work and in his car, his petition is really about safety.
Dieno runs a safety equipment company and says there are lots of studies that show that the time change affects people’s sleep, making them less productive and more accident-prone.
"There’s an increase of accidents on the roads, there's an increase of pedestrian accidents and there's also an increase in workplace injuries,” he says.
Dieno also argues that the primary goal of Daylight Time is to conserve energy, but he says studies have reached different conclusions about whether the time change actually does that.
It’s worth noting that there are several places in Canada that don’t switch their clocks. Saskatchewan has not followed Daylight Saving Time since the 1960s, choosing instead to observe Central Standard Time year-round.
Parts of Nunavut and Quebec don’t observe Daylight Saving Time either.
Dieno is hoping to get 10,000 people to sign his online petition. It’s already more than three-quarters of the way there after less than three days.
Those signing the petition say they agree that the time change doesn't do much good, but it does disrupt their sleep.
If he reaches his goal, Dieno plans to take the petition to the B.C. government to lobby for a switch from all the time switching.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Kent Molgat
