On Sunday, March 10, we’ll all be moving our clocks ahead one hour at 2 a.m. into Daylight Saving Time (DST). We might be losing one hour of sleep, but it’s definitely worth the extra hours of sunlight! The sun will start setting at around 7:15 p.m. as of March 10, and as soon as April we’ll have sunlight until past 8 p.m. – giving us a few more precious hours of Vitamin D.
And we can look forward to the first day of spring on March 19!
Despite the extra sunlight, not everyone is a fan of DST — motor vehicle accidents have historically risen in the month following the clocks turning back, and police apparently respond to 70 per cent more collisions.
You might recall that Daylight Saving Time has been a point of contention among Ontarians for a while now. Ontario MPPs voted to stop the archaic changing of clocks practice in 2021 after MPP Jeremy Roberts proposed the idea, but the vote was contingent on other jurisdictions, like Quebec and New York State, agreeing. The bill received royal assent, but it has to be proclaimed into force by the Lieutenant Governor.
Yukon has already permanently implemented Daylight Saving Time, making their leap forward in March of 2020 their last. And late 2021, Alberta held a referendum regarding keeping Daylight Saving Time, but just over 50 per cent of Albertans voted against the change, keeping the status quo for now.
Ontario holds an important place in Daylight Saving Time history – what is now the town of Thunder Bay was the first place worldwide to adopt Daylight Saving Time on May 1, 1908. So when you wake up for work Monday feeling like you’re one hour short of a full night’s sleep, you know who to blame!
Imagine how relieved the people in charge of adjusting the time on the city’s historical clocks, shown below, would have been if we gave up on changing the clocks for basically no reason at all twice a year!
A. Old City Hall has Toronto’s second oldest clock. At three hundred feet above the city street, it has been telling time and making its mark on the city’s skyline since 1900.
B. Kents Jewelers, which specialized in both jewelry and watches, had a beautiful clock outside of their store located at 168 Yonge St. seen in this photo taken in 1923.
C. Torontonians have been keeping time with Yorkville’s fire hall clock since 1889. The clock was originally part of the Yorkville town hall until a fire destroyed the building in 1941.
D. Constructed in 1850, the Gothic Revival–styled St. James Cathedral, on the corner
of Church and King streets in downtown Toronto, houses the city’s oldest clock.
E. This iconic clock, situated in front of Union Station when it opened in 1927, now sports
the words ‘Union Station’ on its face instead of numbers after its restoration in 2015.
F. Thornhill’s earliest public clock was a bell atop the Thornhill Hotel in 1891, which rang
at 7 a.m., noon and 6 p.m., to let locals know when to wake up, eat and end their workday.
G. O’Keefe’s Beverages Limited kept the city safe and on time with its neon rooftop
sign that both sported a helpful reminder and housed a digital clock.
H. North York’s oldest clock, built in 1942, was once part of North York’s first fire hall. The clock tower and archway entrance are all that remain at Yonge and Empress Avenue.
I. A historic landmark on King Street East and one of the oldest structures in the city, the four faced St. Lawrence Hall clock was built in 1850 following the Great Fire of Toronto.
