Bob Mackin
In 2019, then-NDP Premier John Horgan set B.C. up to keep Daylight Saving Time (DST) year-round. The populist move would only be triggered if the three U.S. West Coast states made the change simultaneously. Washington, Oregon and California rely on federal approval and they are still waiting.
Fast forward to March 2, when Premier David Eby gathered the press gallery for a “special announcement.”
It featured kids from the nearby South Park elementary, dancing to Daft Punk’s “One More Time,” to signify the last time that clocks in B.C. will spring forward on March 8.
The irony is this: the Daft Punk classic is not about stopping. According to the Pitchfork 500 guide to the greatest songs, the message of ‘One More Time’ is “let’s defy our exhaustion, let’s keep dancing that little bit longer.”
Premier David Eby’s March 2 permanent Daylight Saving Time announcement. (BC Gov/Flickr)
(Coincidentally, the French electronica duo released the single in November 2000. In May 2001, B.C. voters threw the NDP out of office. Will it happen one more time?)
B.C. is going it alone, meaning it will be out-of-sync with neighbour Washington during the winter. The announcement came less than a month since Eby threw support behind a bid to bring NATO’s Defence, Security and Resilience Bank headquarters to B.C. B.C.’s existing time zone was one of the selling points.
Dave-Light Saving Time
It used to be that politicians took time (pardon the pun) and asked voters about changing the time.
During B.C.’s 1972 election, voting took place in five remote ridings on whether to go with Pacific Standard Time, including DST, or stay in the Mountain time zone. The no side won, by just under 65%.
In a 1967 plebiscite, just over 51% of Alberta voters said no to DST. By 1971, almost 61.5% voted in favour. When year-round DST was put to Alberta voters again in 2021, year-round DST was defeated by 50.24%.
Eby has little time for democracy at the moment. His government’s February budget landed with a thud, bringing bad news about a bigger deficit, tax hikes and the end of the anti-patronage watchdog. So he needed something quick to change the channel for the new month.
In doing so, Eby, the 37th Premier of B.C., is following in the footsteps of the 37th President of the U.S., Richard Nixon, who declared year-round DST during the energy crisis in 1974.
The Smithsonian Magazine recalled: “The main drawback to pushing the clock forward permanently was the prolonged early-morning darkness in the winter, which left children heading to school when it was ‘jet black’ outside.”
Nixon resigned (for other reasons) in August that year. By October, White House successor Gerald Ford made DST seasonal again.
In reaction to Eby, the Victoria Times Colonist interviewed Dr. Michael Pollock of Camosun College, one of many scientists who support year-round Standard Time instead in order to avoid what is called Mornings Artificially Darkened, or MAD.
Eby is going MAD? Say it Ain’t so!
Cue the “What, me worry?” kid.
Kenny and Lenny-gate, Week 2
After trying again to apologize to COPE Coun. Sean Orr last week, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim tried to put it all behind him on March 3. It did not go so well.
He took questions at city hall from four reporters in five minutes and then skedaddled, leaving more questions than answers.
Such as the mysterious picture that he said prompted him to make the false allegation to Chinese-language media outlets that Orr distributed drugs last Christmas. Bah-humbug!
Why did Sim hold such a news conference exclusively for Chinese-language outlets on Feb. 6? He speaks neither Cantonese nor Mandarin and frequently boasts about inclusivity.
And where were the six members of his ABC party caucus? They usually stand behind him and nod approvingly. Not even Deputy Mayor Sarah Kirby-Yung or Coun. Lenny Zhou, whose now-deleted WeChat video triggered the controversy. Instead, it was solo Sim.
Zhou has not responded for comment. Nor has he made an apology on his WeChat account.
Key question: Did Zhou use a city-issued smartphone to make the video and post it onto the Chinese surveillance and propaganda app?
If so, that would contravene the city’s policies since late 2023. I double-checked and this is what the communications department told me: “According to the City of Vancouver’s Technology Acceptable Use Policy, WeChat is not allowed on mobile devices issued to staff. It is aligned with the Government of Canada’s policy.”
Screen shot of Coun. Lenny Zhou’s deleted WeChat video and translated text. (LennyZhou821023 on WeChat)
It is 227 days until the civic election on Oct. 17.
The key day on Sim’s calendar, however, is June 13: in 101 days, the first of seven FIFA World Cup matches at B.C. Place Stadium. Australia versus either Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia or Turkey. By virtue of being mayor, Sim will enjoy VIP access to as many matches as he wants. Even those out-of-town, including the July 19 final in New Jersey.
What is Carney concealing?
Prime Minister Mark Carney went to Beijing in January to visit Xi Jinping and made a number of deals with the country he declared Canada’s new “strategic partner.”
The Canada-China Business Council was ecstatic with the reset. Nevermind how the Chinese Communist Party continues to support Russia in its illegal, four-year-old war on Canadian ally Ukraine. Or any of the other stuff packed inside last year’s Hogue Commission report about foreign interference and transnational repression.
Frank Caputo, the Conservative critic for the Minister of Public Safety, wrote to Gary Anandasangaree on Feb. 9, seeking a copy of one of those deals, the Co-operation in Combating Crimes Between the RCMP and China’s Ministry of Public Security.
What are the implications of Canada sharing intelligence with a dictatorship?
“I still haven’t heard anything back,” Caputo told me on March 1. “I have spoken to the minister personally about this. I put it out publicly, and I believe that that memorandum of understanding should be released publicly forthwith.”
Surrey helps Toronto
On Feb. 26, Toronto Police Service announced the arrest of two men and the name of another, who is wanted for last June’s second degree murder of Jahkai Jack, 15.
One of the Toronto men, Rajveer Gill, 21, was caught in British Columbia, but the TPS refused to disclose the jurisdiction.
theBreaker.news confirmed that Gill, facing a charge of accessory after the fact to murder, was nabbed in Surrey.
Surrey Police Service public information officer Sgt. Tige Pollock confirmed the SPS Gang Crime Unit arrested Gill at the request of TPS.
“SPS does not have any charges in relation to this incident,” Pollock said.
Subscribe to theBreaker.news on Substack. Find out how: Click here.
