The Politics of Time

[orangelamp]

Okay, so I'm probably making too much out of this.

It bugs the living crap out of me that almost every province across the country, has changed their laws, to accommodate the American "Energy Policy Act [2005]" By moving the dates that Daylight Savings Time is changed

Comments

[the_berserker]

The Americans did this before, during the energy crisis in the 70s. Ontario didn't go along with it then. I don't see why Ontario is going along with it this time. I agree with the OP that we are likely to use more, rather than less, energy during this period. Also, I dread the thought of driving to work in the dark on Monday morning with a lot of sleep-deprived motorists.

[the_berserker]

A source. This is from Wikipedia's article on the 1973 Oil Crisis at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis :

"Year-round Daylight Saving Time was implemented: at 2:00 AM local time on January 6, 1974, clocks were advanced one hour across the nation. The move spawned significant criticism because it forced many children to commute to school before sunrise. As a result, the clocks were turned back on the last Sunday in October as originally scheduled, and in 1975 clocks were set forward one hour at 2:00 AM on February 23, the later date being adopted to address the aforementioned issue. The pre-existing daylight-saving rules, calling for the clocks to be advanced one hour on the last Sunday in April, were restored in 1976."

[kalidor]

FYI they also did it during WW2. The kicker? Studies show that there was an energy savings of 1%. This is with a 3% Margin of error. In other words, energy savings cannot even be accuratly estimated from this. Add to the fact that many many many companies will be loosing money to patch systems and procedures that don't need patched. Then you throw into the mix that, based on the other programers I know, there is a disproportionate amount of actual resources to make the patches work right, bug free, and not cause havoc.

[_social_retard_]

Oh I am so behind yuo with this one. It pisses me right off. What gets me is that we are doing this not because we think it will save on energy or reduce crime or make people smile more or whatever the the erason the states are doing it. The number one reason why we are doing ths is BECAUSE the states are doing. Im sorry thats just not a good reason to mess around with one's clocks. Just because someone else wants to get up an hour eariler doesn't mean we shuold. We didn't say "Oh the staets are doing this, its a erally good idea, there are good reasons and we could benifit too" we said 'Oh the states are doign this, we'd better follow suit otherwise there might be problems." I've heard the most redicules reason to do this like Air traffic. There could be accidents if our time is not in sink with the staets. Uhm... I don't think air traffic controlers are that stupid. Im sure they can accomodate, they do when they cross timezones, its SIMPLE math. Oh no were crossing a timezone! What time is it now? Wait? is it spring ahead or behind

[gueny]

It was my understanding, if I remember the media reports of the past correctly, that the Canadian economy will collapse if we have a 3 week period in a year where our clocks are not in sync with the Americans. If we do not make the change, then come Monday morning we would all be out of work, buildings would be burning, people would be screaming, and society would end as we know it. If you don't believe me, just look at Saskatchewan.

These are the types of things that happen if we don't do as big brother America does.

But then again, that may all be moot. According to recent news reports, this change in daylight savings is going to cause all hospitals to implode on Sunday morning. And in fact, it's very likely the world will simply blow up.

[_social_retard_]

Planes will fall from the sky. Stephen Colbert told me so...

[wyliekat]

Have a little perspective. It's three weeks earlier and one week later.

[zastrazzi]

There seems to be a great deal of noise about something that is largely a non-issue in most of Canada

[_social_retard_]

Why? What could possibly go wrong if Canada did not follow suit with daylight savings?

[zastrazzi]

The downside to not making the switch however is a lot more significant. There are a lot of companies in Canada that deal with the US. There are a lot of companies that straddle the border and have operations in Canada and the US.

There are numerous regulations in place that require companies to accurately record a great deal of information which must withstand audits. To only patch systems on the US side and not on the Canadian side of operations would be a bloody nightmare. Particularly in instances where there are shared network resources such as Exchange that deals with calendaring and meetings etc.

There is also the issue of travel, particularly for business travellers who use laptops and smart devices like the blackberry and Moto Q that don't just pick up their time from the provider, but run an OS that has to be patched for DST. Works fine on one side of the border but not the other for 5-6 weeks a year? Not good.

[_social_retard_]

Okay thats rude man, I obviously allready erad what you wrote. No need to cut and paste. Anyways you don't say WHY it would be bad. All yuo say is that it would be bad, because there aer buinesses that operate in both countires and people that travel between the two and that thies people use laptops. Uhm...kay? Plenty of buinesses operate between Canada and other countries with time differentials, plenty of companies operate between PROVINCES with time differentials, as do buinesmen, laptops and cellphones. You name it. Why would the states hcanging thier dayight huors and us not following suit have any adverse affect on anything? True people would have to update thier personal organizers and whatnot but the same is true now that we ARE following suit. So what would the big deal be?