Everything Changes

Most Canadians will get an extra hour of sleep when they set their clocks back one hour this weekend to revert to standard time, but it will be the last time the annual fall ritual is performed before Halloween.

A drive to conserve energy in the United States has led to changes in Canada as well that add a full four weeks to the daylight time period starting in 2007.

Springing an hour ahead will come three weeks earlier next year, on the second Sunday of March, and the fall back will be a week later on the first Sunday of November.

Having extra sunlight for an extra month may provide marginal energy savings, but the change is by no means a solution to the country's energy conservation needs, said Chris Winter with the Conservation Council of Ontario.

"There are certainly other things we need to do," Winter said Friday from his office in Toronto. "I wouldn't really want us to be focusing a lot of time and energy on is daylight saving going to save the world?

"It's a small piece to the puzzle."

The switch to standard from daylight time happens in the wee hours of Sunday morning except for anyone living in Saskatchewan, Southampton Island in Nunavut, several communities in northwestern Ontario and a few pockets of British Columbia where standard time is used year-round.

Daylight time was adopted by several countries during the First World War to save fuel.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with first suggesting the idea of daylight time in a 1784 essay. Some believe Franklin was joking, but more than a century later a British builder named William Willet made a serious push for the change in a 1907 pamphlet entitled "Waste of Daylight."

In the modern era, the United States decided to lengthen the daylight time period when it passed an energy bill in 2005. The idea is that shifting an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening reduces home power consumption by better matching waking time with daylight hours.

A study done in the U.S. during the 1970s suggested it would result in savings amounting to about one per cent of electricity consumption.

But the change south of the border left Canadian provinces out of step. They had to decide whether to follow suit or risk falling out of sync with U.S. time zones for airlines, manufacturers, the financial sector and television programming.

So far, all Canadian jurisdictions that participate in daylight time have decided to go with the new schedule with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nunavut, who have yet to state their intentions.

A spokesman for the Newfoundland government said the province is likely to get on board, but nothing has been finalized.

The Canadian Press, 2006

It's been five years since my last eye exam. That's a long time. Too long, in fact. And I could tell I was due, especially when driving on the highway at night. Things just didn't look as clear as they should.

There is a new store that opened in town called Great Glasses, so I went there to see how much they charged for an eye exam.

"Free?! Your exams are free?! How can that be?"

The person I asked informed me that the exam was given by a technician, not a doctor. I asked him if the technician checked the "health" of the eye. He told me they didn't and suggested I go to an Optometrist for that.

So, I found a local Optometrist and got my eyes checked. Then I went back to Great Glasses. They had a 3-for-1 special.

I was basically attacked by 6 eager sales people showing me various types of eyeglass frames. Since I could buy one and get two free I decided to go with sunglasses and reading glasses as my second and third options. And yes. I said reading glasses. (Sigh.) That's what I get for being old and liking to read.

I pick 3 frames, secured the deal and went on my way. Great!

Great? So, why - 24 hours later - was I feeling uncomfortable about my purchase? And what exactly could I do about it?

The next day I called Great Glasses to ask them a few additional questions about my order. First of all, I wanted to know if the sales people at Great Glasses were Opticians - you know, the people that "fit" your glasses, etc. The people that go to school for two years to learn about eyes and glasses. The people that need to be registered by The College of Opticians in order to legally do their job. THOSE Opticians.

The response I got to my first question was unusual. I was told that there was nothing illegal about what Great Glasses does.

"What? Why did they respond that way? Is there something I don't know?"

Then I was told that, although they are not registered Opticians, they are all TRAINED by a registered Optician. For one day!

GREAT glasses?!

Yesterday I picked up my glasses. They simply handed me my three prepaid pairs of glasses and I went on my way.

Today I went to a REGISTERED Optician to find out if my new glasses has been cut correctly. As soon as I said the words "Great Glasses" to the Optician she began having convulsions! She was horrified that I went there to get my new glasses, and even more amazed that I hadn't heard about the LAWSUITS against Great Glasses! She said there had been full page articles in the local paper and reports on the local news.

Oh GREAT!!

She also told me that she had the articles RE: Great Glasses posted on the walls of her store until she was THREATENED in the parking lot one night by one of the sales people from Great Glasses! She also told me that she sent two people to EMERGE because the contact lenses they purchased at Great Glasses got stuck to their eyes!!

Sigh. Great.

Thankfully, after she checked out the main pair of glasses I purchased from Great Glasses, she informed me that they were cut properly. I'm bringing my sunglasses and reading glasses to her tomorrow so she can check them too.

The moral of the story? If you live in Canada, stay FAR AWAY from Great Glasses! Don't get your eyes examined there, and don't purchase their GREAT deal!

And, oh yeah... tell all your friends.