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National Post

Clock-changing tradition changes in 2007
New system designed to make maximum use of daylight time

On Sunday, Oct. 29, people across North America will be turning their clocks back an hour, bringing an end to daylight saving time for another year.

However, all of this will be changing in 2007.

Next year, another three to four weeks of daylight are slated to be added -- two at the beginning of daylight saving and one at the end.

Instead of turning your clocks ahead an hour on the first Sunday in April, as has been the practice the past several decades, the starting time for daylight saving will be pushed ahead two or three weeks (depending on whether it is a four or five-Sunday month) to the second Sunday in March.

The first Sunday in April had been designated the beginning of daylight saving up to this point.

At the same time, this year will the last one in which the clocks will be turned back an hour on the last Sunday in October. In 2007, daylight saving time will not end until the first Sunday in November.

Dr. Rob Douglas of Ottawa, a spokesman for the Institute for National Measuring Standards, said yesterday the driving force behind this move is to create more daylight hours in the evenings.

"It seems that most people in Canada and the United States would prefer to have the extra daylight time after supper rather than additional sunlight before breakfast in the morning," said Douglas. He said they do not like the idea of it being dark when they are leaving work or school to go home.

Several public and private organizations across Canada have been pushing for an extended daylight saving period for a long time, said Douglas.

He said one of the earliest groups banging the drums for expanding the daylight saving period was the Council of Maritime Premiers. The council began promoting the idea in the early 1980s, he added. The U.S. picked up on this plea by the Canadian groups and both countries began a co-ordinated effort to have a unified, longer daylight saving period come on stream at the same time, said Douglas. Barring something totally unexpected, he said it will become a reality across the two nations next year.

Douglas is a physicist with the National Research Council. The Institute for National Measurement Standards is a branch of the council. For awhile, the New Brunswick government considered changing from the ADT time zone to EST to coincide with the altered daylight saving period. Several business leaders felt it would be advantageous to be in the same time zone as their largest trading partners -- Quebec, Ontario and the eastern United States.

However, after weighing concerns from parents about children coming home from school in the dark, the province decided to remain in the ADT time zone with the other two Maritime provinces.

Douglas said daylight saving time was originally introduced in Canada during the First World War as a temporary measure to create more daylight for war munitions facilities. But the public liked the concept so much, he said, that it was continued after the war ended.