'It's nice': Meet the Canadians tasked with changing country's famous clocks

The Old Town Clock is seen in Halifax on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017. This weekend marks the beginning of daylight time, which sees most Canadians wind their clocks ahead an hour. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

For at least a couple of hours on Sunday morning, Halifax residents who get the time from the city’s Old Town Clock may be thrown off.

Craig Potter, an employee with Parks Canada, will be making the slow climb to change the clock, as he has done twice a year for the past four years.

“I’m not going to be there (at) two in the morning, let’s say,” Potter said with a laugh. “But I will be there fairly early on Sunday.”

This weekend marks the beginning of daylight time, which sees Canadians — minus those in Saskatchewan, the Yukon and parts of B.C. — wind their clocks ahead by one hour.

The time changes over at 2 a.m. Sunday.

While the act of physically changing the time has decreased as more people rely on electronic devices, Potter is part of a small group of Canadians tasked with making sure historic clocks across the country display the right time.

The Palladian-inspired clock tower, located on Halifax’s Citadel Hill, began ticking in 1803. It was a parting gift to the city by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, as he returned to England. Commander-in-chief of the British military, he was big on punctuality and wanted the city’s forces to be, too.

The artifact’s original clockworks are still intact and in use. It’s powered by three weights on drums, each suspended on a long cable. As the clock is wound, the cables pull the weights up. Gradually, the weights drop, causing the drums to rotate and setting the clock in motion.

“This is purely mechanical,” said Potter. “There’s no electricity. There’s no other power.”

On the morning of the time change, Potter will climb several storeys to disengage the gears between the clock drive and its faces. He’ll slowly turn the gear by hand to advance the clock forward and make its dulcet-toned bells ring.

The whole process is technical, says Potter, but takes less than two minutes to complete and makes sure an iconic part of the city’s history stays in working order.

“It’s nice to know that I can help maintain that,” he said.

In Manitoba’s capital, one of Winnipeg’s largest clocks sits perched on top of city hall.

The square, three-metre-tall white and black timekeeper has been there since 1974, delivered as a gift for the city’s centennial anniversary. City employees are in charge of changing the time twice a year.

The process is to occur shortly after the 2 a.m. time change and typically involves one electrician, says supervisor of building maintenance services Ken Pietracci.

An inside ladder goes up to the roof deck, where the electrician can access a large gear box on both sides of the clock. There are manual switches to advance the time. In the fall, when the clocks go back, it is powered down for an hour.

Time has taken a toll on the clock over the years, undergoing repairs and modifications so Winnipeggers stay punctual.

“That’s one of the things I always constantly look at when I’m coming into work,” said Pietracci. “Because if not, we do hear about it quite quickly from residents.”

Further west, a piece of history is visible at Calgary city hall. Its clock dates back to 1911 and is believed to be one of the only ones left in Canada made by the famous Seth Thomas Clock Company.

Changing its time is a two-person job.

Jilian Henderson, the city’s manager of strategic business services for facilities, said staff need to hold parts of a gear train to allow them to spin and sink to the desired timing. Sometimes, there are multiple gears that need to be adjusted simultaneously.

“It’s still working pretty well all these years later,” she said.

Article written by Brittany Hobson.