Bridging the Divide brings together Canadians from different backgrounds and experience to tackle pressing issues facing our country.
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Bridging → bridge → country
Hopefully, these unconventional pairings will inspire new ideas to help make Canada a better place for everyone.
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Canada → inspire → everyone
The first Sunday of November, most Ontarians will set their clocks back an hour.
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Ontarians → set → clocks
In Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg, the clocks will stay put.
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clocks → stay → Vancouver
B.C., Alberta and Manitoba have all adopted permanent daylight time this year.
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B.C. → adopt → time
And if U.S. President Donald Trump has his way, Americans could eventually stop changing their clocks, too.
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Americans → have → clocks
Ontario passed its own law to make daylight time permanent in 2020.
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time → pass → 2020
It has never taken effect because the province has been waiting for Quebec and New York state to follow suit.
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Quebec → take → suit
With other provinces abandoning the switches, is it time for Ontario to stop waiting?
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Ontario → abandon → switches
Ending the clock changes may be the easy part.
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Ending → end → changes
The harder question: Which time should we keep?
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we → keep → time
Permanent daylight time means lighter winter evenings, but sunrises in Toronto approaching 9 a.m. in late December.
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time → mean → December
Permanent standard time, the setting we return to in November, means earlier sunrises but sunsets before 5 p.m. in December.
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we → return → December
In this week’s Bridging the Divide, York University biology professor Patricia Lakin-Thomas and Dalhousie University professor of food distribution policy Sylvain Charlebois agree that the clock changes should end.
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changes → bridge → policy
Both also prefer standard time, which puts them at odds with nearly every politician pushing for change, from Victoria to Washington.
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which → prefer → Washington
Where they split is on how much that preference should count.
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preference → split → ?
Lakin-Thomas argues for permanent standard time, which keeps our body clocks in step with the sun.
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which → argue → sun
Charlebois says that if the Americans lock in daylight time, Ontario should follow.
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Ontario → say → time
Between the sun and U.S. markets, he’d pick the markets.
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he → pick → markets
It’s definitely a good idea to stop changing the clocks.
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It → ’ → clocks
More and more studies are coming out, showing us the health impacts of switching back and forth.
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studies → come → impacts
Everybody’s already sleep-deprived, and in the spring we lose another hour of sleep, which affects our health and decision-making.
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which → ’ → health
Those increases tend to subside after a few days or weeks because people may catch up on sleep and eventually synchronize to the new schedule.
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people → tend → schedule
But going from standard time to daylight saving time harms our physiology over the longer term.
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going → go → term
We don’t see these short-term impacts in the fall time change.
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We → see → change
We are gaining an hour of sleep, which everybody can use, and going back into standard time, so it’s easy and quick for us to readjust our internal clocks to the sun clock.
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us → gain → clock
But overall, getting rid of time switches would be good for us biologically.
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rid → rid → us
I’m also not in favour of changing time.
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I → ’m → time
Say, for example, you run a restaurant that serves breakfast.
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that → say → breakfast
You’ll typically have some employees showing up late, especially in the spring.
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employees → have → spring
It brings more complexity to managing a business.
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It → bring → business
It also affects farming.
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It → affect → farming
Nowadays it’s less of a factor because cows get milked when they want, rather than on a tight schedule.
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they → ’ → schedule
But you can still see some effects on animals because of the daylight and when things happen, such as deliveries of feed.
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things → see → feed
We agree that we should stop changing the clocks.
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we → agree → clocks
Do we agree that we should stay on standard time rather than permanent daylight time?
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we → agree → time
There is good evidence that standard time year-round is better for our health and the economy.
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time → be → health
Many businesses prefer permanent standard time.
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businesses → prefer → time
If you’re in hospitality or food service, that certainly pays off because people get up and they’re ready to go much earlier.
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they → ’re → hospitality
You see an increase in business for breakfasts, for example.
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You → see → example
…and 61 more, not listed.
The Aporia
