by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Thanks to a man from Kalamazoo, we’ll likely soon be seeing a trick of the light never before witnessed here. Starting in 2007, we may start setting our clocks to give us a full extra month of daylight savings time (DST).

Assuming provincial governments agree, this town will have four extra weeks of days with an hour more afternoon light. Currently, we fall back to standard time on the last Sunday in October (this year it’s 2 a.m. on Oct. 30) and spring forward on the first Sunday in April (which will happen at 2 a.m. on April 2, 2006).

Michigan Republican Congressman Fred Upton originally sought to implement yearround daylight savings time but feared the Senate would find it unacceptably radical.

“We wanted to be realistic from the start, that’s why we were looking for two months [extended DST] per year and finally agreed to split the difference,” says Upton. “The compromise was for one extra week in the fall and three in the spring,” says Upton, who designed the legislation with Massachusetts Democrat rival Ed Markey. That means standard time will being in early November and end in mid-March. Upton says he was motivated by studies that suggest that the U.S. would save 100,000 barrels of oil a day for every day that the summertime schedule was stretched out.

Some who have grumbled about the change include early morning commuters and parents wary of bringing their children to schoolbuses on dark mornings.

“We had more kids that really need that sunlight going home,” Upton counters. He even addressed the trick-or-treaters’ agenda, which will now be done in brighter light. Drivers will benefit as well. “We saw insurance studies that said that this would be saving lives.”

In Quebec, the decision on whether to copy the Americans belongs to the Minister of Justice. Other ministers have been asked to consult with their constituents and offer an opinion, which was due several weeks ago. Citizens will not be directly consulted concerning the issue, according to a Justice Department media rep.

In contrast, Ontario has already been busy on the issue. Provincial assembly member David Zimmer, for instance, has been canvassing the public and institutions.

Zimmer reports that 4,000 emailing Ontarians have responded to an invitation to comment on the DST issue. About 80 per cent support the change, and banks and other institutions also want to go along with the new American clock.

“The 20 per cent that oppose it offer no real reason behind their opposition other than that it’s an exercise in Canadian nationalism,” says Zimmer. “Their response is that we don’t have to follow the Americans but, leaving that aside, they’re not interested in discussing it.”

Experts argue that safety, energy consumption and even health would improve, says Zimmer. “We even had a submission from mental health advocates about seasonal affective disorder,” he says. “They say that if we give them more sunlight, it’ll help combat depression.”

Zimmer, who confesses that he’d personally like to see “even more daylight savings,” says families want afternoon light time too. “Families tell me that their mornings are a chaotic whirl of trying to get breakfast and to work on time. They’d rather have extra daylight at the end of the day to do something with their kids.”

And, he adds, many support the DST changes simply because, “What’s really important to most is being in sync with the American system.”