Daylight Saving Act of 1917

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The Daylight Saving Act of 1917 was an act enacted by the Dominion of Newfoundland to adopt Daylight Saving Time, thus making it the first jurisdiction in North America to do so, only a year after Britain itself on May 21, 1916. It was not instituted in the United States until March 31, 1918.

[edit] History

While living in Paris in 1784, Benjamin Franklin wrote an essay entitled An Economic Project^[1] in which he suggested a seasonal variation of tracking time but the idea was not heeded and commonly taken to be a joke. In spite of that he is commonly credited as being the founder of the idea. William Willett, a London building contactor is viewed as the modern founder or resurrector of the idea because he pitched the idea to the British Parliament in 1907. In that same year Willett spoke with John Anderson who was on a business trip in Britain, and explained to him the benefits of adopting Daylight Saving Time and its economic benefits. Germany was the first to adopt Daylight Saving Time in 1915 followed quickly by Great Britain and many other western European countries, all in an effort to save fuel during World War I.

Upon his return to Newfoundland, Anderson became a strong proponent of Daylight Saving Time and three times introduced a bill to the Legislative Council for its adoption. The first two attempts, in 1909 and 1910, failed. In 1917, spurred on perhaps by the recent adoptions of Daylight Saving Time in Europe, Anderson introduced a third bill which passed on June 17, 1917. The passing of this bill made Newfoundland the only country, if not the only jurisdiction of any kind, in North America to have done so: the new law stated that at nine o'clock in the evening of the second Sunday in June clocks would be put ahead to ten o'clock and would be turned back until the last Sunday in September.^[2] Daylight Saving Time in Newfoundland became to be known as ‘’Anderson’s Time’’ at least in the years immediately following its adoption.

[edit] Other experiments

During World War II the clocks in Britain were placed ahead by two hours to allow work to be carried out before the nightly blackouts.^[3] For no generally explained reason, an experiment in the two hour change took place in North America in the 1980s and Newfoundland and Labrador was its guinea pig. This experiment might have succeeded had the entire country or the entire continent adopted it but the myriad complaints of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians (from northern Labradorian mothers trying to get their children to bed in the bright midsummer sun of 9 and 10pm to people wanting to watch TV at regular times but having their programs delayed a further hour) put the experiment to rest after a two year run. The regular one hour shift for Daylight Saving Time was then reinstituted; the experiment is oft the source of humour.

It would seem that the continent of North America is collectively thinking about moving all its time zones forward an hour. The current 2006 law adds four weeks to Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. effective this year. Canada is following suit, for the most part, with their change planned for 2007. Add the last few remaining months and North American time zones will all be one hour ahead of the sun. Just as the time zones of France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain have been pretty much since the end of WWII — and they all still go on Daylight Saving Time as well. This means the sun rises to its height at around 2pm or later (especially in Western Spain) during the summer.

Daylight Saving Time remained a provincial jurisdiction after confederation in 1949 as it was for all provinces of Canada. In 1952 the timing was changed such that it began just after midnight of the last Sunday in April and ended at midnight of the last Sunday in September. In 1970 it was extended to the midnight of the last Sunday in October.

Although Canada passed its first Daylight Saving Act in 1918^[4], Québec didn't pass its Daylight Saving Act until 1924.^[5] Although some sources quote Nova Scotia and Manitoba as having adopted Daylight Saving Time in 1916 or 1917, the references to legislation and dates thereof are scarce. The Nova Scotian government website cites only the Nova Scotian Time Definition Act of 1989 which is part of the Revised Statues of that same year. No mention is made of which law of the past was repealed by it.^[6]