Long, long ago, in a different time (you’ll get the pun soon enough), I was a time bandit involved in the theft of an hour.

I was toiling away at a highly-respected newspaper (at least it was until the ill-timed escapade). The biennial time change was approaching on the weekend so we, dutifully seeking to inform our readers to change their clocks, posted the time-change notice on the front page, complete with the obligatory cute clock graphic, on the last issue before the weekend.

It seems we were so good at predicting the news, that we posted the time-change notice a week before the actual time-change. Maybe we just had the scoop and wanted to beat the competition to the story. Maybe we just wanted our community to be a week ahead of the rest of the province. Who knows?

We were alerted to the faux-pas by readers calling in on Monday morning telling us wonderful stories such as they were an hour late for work, their doctor’s appointment, taking medications, they missed their flight … you get the picture.

This was long before the internet and instant news. Once the paper was published we had no way of correcting the error until after the damage was done. We did purchase air time on the radio, but they damage was done.

So, when news broke this week that B.C. is adopting permanent year-round daylight saving time, I was ecstatic, for more reasons than just my emotional scars. Like a lot of British Columbians, I’ve never liked the time change. Frankly, it’s just a pain in the butt.

I always liked the internet meme that often shows up at this time of year. It shows an old indigenous chief, and his comment is: “Only a white man would cut a foot off one end of a blanket, sew it back on the other, and think he has a longer blanket.”

Not sure it needs a racial aspect to it, but the sentiment sums up the time-change rationale perfectly.

But alas, my time-euphoria was short lived. The East Kootenay, and parts of the northeast, would not be affected and keep the time-honoured tradition of clock-switching in the middle of the night twice a year.

The rationale? There is none.

But all is not lost. The City of Cranbrook and the Regional District of East Kootenay have decided to look into the matter. According to the legislation, municipalities can set their own time. Think Creston, where time doesn’t change (no quips please). The world needs more Creston … at least in this timeline.

I loved Creston’s response to all the foofaraw over who will change time and who won’t:
“… Don’t worry though. In Creston, we’ll just keep doing what we’ve always done — calmly existing in our own steady little time bubble and letting everyone else figure it out.
“See you at 7.
“Our 7.
“Not their 7.
“Maybe your 6.
“Or would that be 8?
“Honestly… just leave early.”

Now Alberta is going to look at following B.C.’s lead. That would solve our problem entirely. Personally, I don’t care if we’re the same time as the rest of B.C. or whether we remain an hour ahead … on Alberta time.

Let’s just pick a time and stick with it. It’s time for a change and that change will be to not change in the fall.

Born and raised in Fernie, Bill Phillips is an award-winning journalist and columnist. He was the winner of the 2009 Best Editorial award at the British Columbia/Yukon Community Newspaper Association’s Ma Murray awards, in 2007 he won the association’s Best Columnist award. In 2004, he placed third in the Canadian Community Newspaper best columnist category and, in 2003, placed second. Read more Writer’s Block here.