Nova Scotians set to spring forward as daylight saving debate continues

With British Columbia permanently adopting daylight saving time, should the Maritimes do the same?

Nova Scotians will lose an hour of sleep this weekend as clocks move ahead for daylight saving time, a change that continues to spark debate.

At 2 a.m. Sunday, clocks will spring forward, bringing brighter evenings but darker mornings.

For some, the extra light after work is a welcome shift.

“I wish the days were longer after supper in the winter, and I feel like the winter would be so much more pleasant if there were a little bit more daylight after work instead of in the morning,” said one resident. “I’m so excited. It’s in my calendar. I’m counting the days down. I’ll feel the relief as soon as it happens.”

The long-held belief that daylight saving time was created for farmers doesn’t reflect modern farm life, says Catherine Manning, who farms in Falmouth, N.S., and is the vice president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture.

“We do the work when it needs to be done, whether the sun is up or the sun is down,” Manning said. “So I can’t say that it’s necessarily a benefit to have that change, because we’re going to do the work when it needs to be done, no matter what the clock really is.”

Researchers say the clock change itself can disrupt sleep.

“Doing this spring forward, fall back is not good for our bodies. We’ve been doing this in Alberta since 1972, and we know there’s acute harm that comes with that spring forward in March,” said Michael Antle, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary.

The issue has also surfaced politically in Nova Scotia.

Last year, interim Liberal Leader Ian Rankin tabled a bill to eliminate the twice-yearly time change, but it did not move forward.

“My main thought is that it just shouldn’t change back and forth,” Rankin said.

British Columbia said this Sunday will be the last time it adjusts clocks for a biannual time change, choosing to remain on daylight saving time permanently.

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