Saturday, February 24, 2007

Thanks for Another Month of Gloom - Part the Second

I am writing this while the outside is stilled entombed in late winter darkness. In about half an hour, roughly 6:30 AM, I'll be able to make out the first glimmerings of day in the somewhat lighter shade of blue edging the mountain tops to the east. By 7:00 AM it will be first light, and although the sun won't have officially risen in theory for another half hour, it'll be bright enough to carry on your business outdoors without additional lighting.

Over the past twenty years I have become accustomed to the very long winter nights, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate daybreak psychologically, as a symbol of the banishment of evil and the renewal of human activity.

So why the fuck is the government of Canada, with the complicity of provincial governments, forcing us northern residents back into the sepulchral darkness of night for another hour commencing March 11?

This decision was taken, it appears, administratively. There was no public debate, and it seems to have passed under everyone's radar until the doom-and-gloom prognostications of another Y2K-type mass computer failure started to appear in the newspapers. So why is Canada changing its clocks when it will most probably result in more power consumption rather than less?

My googling of 2006 news articles points to a perceived necessity to synchronize our time zones with our major trading partner to the south. But this is complete bullshit. I mean, why enforce a north-south symmetry and do nothing with the east-west time differences?
In Canada, we have five time zones covering a differential of four-and-a-half hours. Yet no one bitches about having to wait in Toronto until noon to contact a company in Vancouver or Los Angeles. And what about overseas time differentials? They are, granted, a bit inconvenient, but if placing a buy order at closing time on the Tokyo Stock Exchange necessitates having to phone Japan at 1:00 AM Halifax time, you just do it, or get someone else to do it.

So why does north-south trump east-west? This brings me to the arse lickers of Satan - the ruling Conservative Party of Canada.



This timorous bunch of braindead morons decided to go along with the early daylight saving time switch out of fear hexing the trade relations with the US. They were fearful of causing a collapse of the maple syrup market because calls from US investors at 9:30 their time would go unanswered, causing panic among American investors. And in true Conservative form, there was a backroom decision.

So, to pander to a perceived mercantile need which doesn't even exist, the right-wing ranters of rabid rhetoric in Ottawa have plunged yours truly back into the night for another hour.

Bastards.

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4 Comments:

Blogger Fuff said...

Well said!

11:26 AM  
Blogger The Phosgene Kid said...

Bush changing the length of daylight savings time here reminds me of the tale of the King that claims he can hold back the tides and winds up drowning. Never mind my comment about moving up by you on my blog - apparently your government isn't any better then the one I already have.

2:35 PM  
Blogger nanuk said...

Fuff: Thanks. I just need to get this off my chest.

Phos: Someone once wrote that we get the government we deserve. We must have done something really bad, I guess.

9:02 AM  
Blogger The Phosgene Kid said...

You and me both!! Now they are really keeping us in the dark - literally!!

7:10 PM  

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