Daylight Saving: Ottawa’s clocks spring forward Sunday

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For one measly hour of “extra” sunshine, Daylight Saving Time, which kicks in Sunday, has become a divisive social practice.

Officially, Daylight Saving begins at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, which becomes 3 a.m. The shift forward means more sunshine at around sunset, while sunrise will be about an hour later on the clock.

The tradition is more than a century old, created by Germany to extend daylight hours for wartime production.

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In 1918, the Canadian government formally joined in, also as a measure to bump up wartime production. The practice ended with the conclusion of the First World War, but was reactivated during the Second World War.

Today, it’s in effect Canada-wide, except for Saskatchewan, the Yukon and some remote parts of British Columbia.

Early in his current term, Trump suggested the country may set the clocks one final time. “Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” he wrote on social media, pledging that Republicans would use their “best efforts” to put an end to it.

Since that December post, though, the issue seems to have fallen off his agenda.

But not so, apparently, that of his right-hand man, Elon Musk, who in recent days has been conducting an unscientific poll on X, the social media site he owns.

He asked people what the U.S. should do if the twice-a-year time change was cancelled. Of those who responded, 58 percent wanted an hour later, and 42 percent an hour earlier.

With files from Postmedia news services

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