Commentary, Opinion

Change you can set your watch to

March 5, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Brock Weir

I’ve never had the best of lucks with clocks.

From the time I first set foot in a school setting at the age of three or four, the tick-tock of the timepiece on the wall was a focal point of learning as we deciphered what those twelve numbers, three hands, and the notches in between translated to. This clock actually had a further ring of twelve numbers inside the main event to teach us not only how to tell time, but do so with military precision.

Still, the tick-tock in a nearly silent classroom never failed to make my hair feel like it was standing on end.

The transition to public school, however, made me embrace the tick-tock a bit more because, it being a school of a certain age, relied on hardwired, plugged-in timepieces where the second hand moved with precision smoothness… and the tick-tock replaced by the dull whir of the motor which irritated my follicles even further!

Still, my luck with clocks hasn’t really improved over… well, time. 

A beautifully made cuckoo clock my grandmother brought me back from Austria – no small feat as she was on a shoulder-to-shoulder bus tour of the Alpen countries – met its demise after the bird chirped one too many times in the middle of the night for my father’s taste.

A clock I had long been searching for to add to my collection – it’s a fandom thing – finally and unexpectedly surfaced at a local thrift store, only to break down beyond repair two weeks after I put it on the wall.

At least that was somewhat replaceable. The next example not so much.

We grandchildren didn’t receive much from our grandfather after his death in 2006, but one particular keepsake that came my way was his wristwatch. It wasn’t the watch I remembered him wearing from the earliest memories of my childhood, that had broken some years before, but it was nevertheless an important way to feel I was still keeping him close.

It was a regular feature on my wrist for about three years before it would inexplicably no longer keep time. Three repairs and three fails later were enough to drive home the fact the watch had served its purpose, but it remains a cherished, if now-still reminder of a person who was very important to me.

And, despite being broken, it is, as the old saying goes, still right twice a day.

Whether you rely on a wall-mounted timepiece, a traditional watch, a glance every once in a while, at your preferred screen, or on wrist-mounted devices that can apparently do everything but take out your trash, this is a time of year where we find ourselves being clock-watchers a little more often than usual.

We’re set to spring our clocks forward an hour in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

For some, losing an hour of sleep to gain an hour of daylight at the end of the day is a pretty good trade-off – and I’m not going to disagree. As a winter enthusiast, one inextricable element of the season that I absolutely loathe is leaving for work and coming home in the darkness.

For others, the change in time is nothing short of a drag as experts cite the havoc the adjustment has on our bodies, minds and souls, not to mention the increase in traffic accidents and other safety concerns that seem to be part and parcel of our spring-forward-fall-back cycle.

Whether you see it as gaining an hour of light or losing an hour of sleep is a matter of your perspective, although both are, of course, true – but as someone who tries to be optimistic wherever possible, falling back sometimes feels like it offers more possibilities.

You’re gaining an hour, in theory. How are you going to spend it in practice?

Some like to luxuriate in bed on the morning of, the extra hour of sleep well-earned on a lazy Sunday. Others see it as a bonus hour and are eager to get up early to make the most of it, sometimes crowing about all the wonderful things they were able to cram into those 60 minutes “while the world slept.”

This springing-forward is a bit of a mixed bag for me. While I’m one of those perhaps annoying people who sees the bonus hour as an opportunity, this season’s time switch is getting me an hour closer to orthopaedic surgery for which I have been looking forward to for no less than 30 years!

That said, it’s bringing me an hour closer to a not-until-you’re-40 orthopedic surgery you’ve been looking forward to for no less than 30 years – and that’s an hour that could be spent preparing, double-checking any checklists and, yes, even worrying!

The bright side? Come the fall, I’m certainly going to make the most of that lost hour when the powers-that-be return it to us!

But how much longer will we have to keep shuttling this single hour back and forth, regardless of its consequences to our physical, mental, and emotional health?

Our cousins in British Columbia have the right idea.

This week, everything aligned just right for our west-coasters to break the cycle of Daylight Savings Time and this Sunday’s hour will be their last payment of 60 minutes without expecting a refund.

The switch in British Columbia is not without its critics, but what’s of particular interest is they forged ahead with ditching the system on their own without waiting for the other jurisdictions, particularly Pacific Coast States, to get their acts together and follow suit.

The desire to ditch the system is just as strong in Ontario, but we’re constantly told we can’t make the switch until Quebec and New York are also on board, largely for economic reasons. But while opposition to “the ditch” is minimal in all three areas, it seems the leadership of the same jurisdictions are still waiting to see who is going to blink first. 

Who’d have thunk the first to blink was British Columbia?

“The provincial government under former premier John Horgan passed legislation in 2019 to switch to permanent daylight time, but did not set a date for the change as it waited to coordinate with its counterparts in Washington, Oregon, and California,” reported the Times Colonist on Monday. “Those states continue to do spring and autumn time changes. In the U.S., changing the system requires congressional approval.

“‘We waited, and we waited, and we waited,’ said [Premier David] Eby. ‘I’m here to announce we’re done waiting.’ In a statement, the province said, ‘recent actions from the U.S. have shifted how B.C. approaches decisions that merit alignment, including on time zones.’” 

The long-term impacts of British Columbia going it alone will be seen over time, but, from my perspective, it sure feels like a step in the right direction.

In fact, it just might be change you can set your watch to.

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