HALIFAX -- The return to daylight time has bumped our clocks ahead by an hour, making it much brighter at quarter after six in the evening.
But plenty of people would prefer we didn't change the time in the spring.
Horologist David Francis literally has time in the palm of his hand.
The majority of Canadians have been "falling back and springing forward" for more than a hundred years.
Daylight time was initiated in Canada in part to increase production during the First World War, but the reasons for keeping the bi-annual clock adjustment seem to be living on borrowed time.
"Why we have it now, it might just be some aberration or maybe it's just habit," Francis said.
At one time, moving clocks ahead by an hour was helpful to farmers. It gave them more daylight to prepare their fields for planting, but with advancements in equipment, the extra hour isn't as valuable.
Small-scale growers who don't have equipment with lights and dairy farmers are in a different situation.
"Dairy cows, they're pretty much creatures of habit," said Tim Marsh, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture. "They like to get milked the same time every day and there's a bit of a debate among the dairy producers. They feel there's a difference."
Neville Helms typically spends his winters south of the border where the days are longer
"The thing that I do mind is the darkness," Helms said.
Studies show it usually takes a few days for our bodies to adjust to the time change. Helms says he'd like to see permanent daylight time.
"The last couple weeks I've been saying it'll be nice when the time moves ahead again, it's nice to have supper in the daylight," Helms said.
And that will continue until we wind the hour hand back again on Nov. 7.
