On the ballot: Should Albertans do away with changing clocks twice a year?

Albertans will be asked whether or not they want to see a permanent move to Daylight Saving Time when they head to the polls on Oct. 18.

When Albertans head to the ballot box in October, they will be faced with several referendum questions, including ending the practice of springing forward and falling back.

The official question on the ballot: “Do you want Alberta to adopt year-round Daylight Saving Time, which is summer hours, eliminating the need to change our clocks twice a year?”

According to the province, the decision to add the question to the ballot came after results of a 2019 survey of 141,000 Albertans showed 91 per cent of respondents were in favour of moving to permanent Daylight Saving Time.

“Personally, I don’t care, but for my kids sake — it’s tough on them, so if we could keep it the same, that would be great,” Pamela Quinn told Global News. “For school and bed times, it would be easier if we could just keep it the same.”

But some Albertans don’t want to end the bi-annual time change.

“I think they should just keep it as is, don’t change it,” Brendon Zelisq said.

Calgarian Blaire Cook said he is indifferent to the ballot question and added he’s changed his clocks twice a year his entire life.

“It wouldn’t matter to us if they changed it or if it stayed the same,” he said.