“Albertans have very strong opinions about daylight saving time and the results of the referendum show that, right now, Albertans prefer to continue changing their clocks,” Nate Glubish, then the minister of Service Alberta, said sadly in a news release published on Oct. 26, 2021.
“There is no right or wrong answer on DST,” Mr. Glubish assured his readers in the canned quote assigned to him in the release.
“We respect the decision made and will continue to focus on the pandemic and on Alberta’s economic recovery,” he promised.
Notwithstanding the implication of the news release’s technically correct lead sentence, the results were pretty close. There were 536,874 ballots cast in favour of leaving things the way they were in then-premier Jason Kenney’s stab at getting Albertans used to referendums as a tool for manipulating representative democracy. That was 50.2 per cent of the ballots cast, which, readers will have to admit, is higher than 50.1 per cent, which is normally supposed to be the baseline for this sort of thing.
As for the Yes side, 531,782 voters opted for permanent daylight savings,49.8 per cent of the valid ballots cast, Elections Alberta reported.
This happened despite Mr. Kenney’s effort to swing voters toward a yes vote. “Across Canada and the United States, more governments are bringing forward legislation to move to permanent daylight saving time, also known as summer hours,” enthused an earlier news release about the vote published by the government on July 15 that year, possibly to distract our minds from COVID.
“As Alberta first adopted daylight saving time following a referendum in 1971, we owe it to Albertans to give them the same opportunity to make their voices heard now that we are considering another change,” said Mr. Glubish, who is now conveniently the minister of technology and innovation and therefore won’t have to feel obligated to comment on this.
Having unexpectedly lost, however, he was a good sport. “Albertans will continue to adjust their clocks twice a year as they have in the past,” the October news release intoned as gloomily as a November evening. “The next time change takes place on Nov. 7, when Alberta falls back one hour.”
Well, that was then. This is now.
Yesterday morning’s column by Rick Bell, the Postmedia political columnist who plays the UCP’s de facto minister of information in the daytime TV series known as Alberta Politics, proclaimed unequivocally that “Alberta is going to daylight saving time all year round.”
“Premier Danielle Smith and her UCP government have made the decision,” Mr. Bell explained. “It will go to the Alberta Legislature for debate this week.” After that it will pass thanks to the United Conservative Party majority in the House, whether or not the Opposition agrees, although Mr. Bell felt no need to include that self-evident truth.
As for that stuff about respecting the decisions made by voters in the UCP’s performative direct democracy “initiatives,” forget about it. That was so 2021! This is the New Alberta, strong and free – although stronger and freer for some of us than for others, it would seem.
According to Mr. Bell, channelling Ms. Smith, There Is No Alternative (TINA). British Columbia is doing it! Saskatchewan is too. What else could we do? (One imagines some British Columbians might be pleased if Alberta were to adopt the same philosophical attitude about new pipelines to the West Coast, Danzig Corridors to Prince Rupert, and other such interprovincial ephemera. Don’t count on that happening.)
Ms. Smith is the Decider, and what the Decider decides is what happens. Really, when you think about it, why do we even need a Legislative Assembly?
Anyway, Albertans will have more important things to vote on in referenda soon, like whether or not we should ask the experienced Kristi Noem to come up and run ACE* for us, and whether Premier Smith is going to have to do like Fidel Castro and wear two Rolexes, one of them always set on Washington time.
About the only other factoids of interest in Mr. Bell’s column, which filled in for the news release the government didn’t publish, are that the premier has a dog named Buck, and she wants the new time zone to be called “Alberta Time.”
There’s no guidance as to whether the buck for which the dog is named is a reference to Harry Truman’s metaphorical knife or the almighty U.S. dollar. That said, the poor beast is probably lucky she didn’t call it Bitcoin.
As for Alberta time, one supposes the premier was motivated by a desire to imitate her political hero’s only partly successful effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
Getting back to that October 2021 news release, it also included Mr. Kenney’s constitutionally meaningless and rhetorically dishonest equalization referendum, and the province’s performative Senate non-election, also constitutionally meaningless.
Permanent daylight savings time may seem to be an insignificant issue – unless, of course, you’re a lobbyist for Big BBQ and Big Golf, which risked losing millions if we’d adopted permanent standard time instead.
But the way it was brushed aside by the Smith Government rather does suggest that the UCP brain trust understands perfectly well that referenda are meant to be used to subvert democracy not support it, by reducing a complex policy debate to a zero-sum yes/no equation. And if you don’t get the answer you want, they have obviously concluded, you can just ignore it.
*Alberta Customs Enforcement, of course!
With winter sunrises occurring an hour later than previously, children walking to and near schools will be doing so amongst motor traffic on darkened streets.
This is more gas lighting and detracting from Danielle Smith. The Corrupt Care scandal of over half a billion dollars is still a thing. Aside from that, I can’t see the reasons for Daylight Savings Time. It doesn’t do a thing to change the actual amount of daytime and nighttime on any particular day of the year. If anyone has a hard time seeing in the dark, there is artificial sources of light for that.
Smith is making a bit of a farce of initiatives and referendums by ignoring results she doesn’t like and asking questions she wants instead regardless. If this is the approach taken, then what is the point of them any more?
It would seem that our former Premier Kenney at least realized daylight savings time was not a hill worth fighting further for after his preferred outcome was narrowly rejected. It is hard to believe, but he was actually not as much as a control freak as Smith, the former libertarian has now become.
When Kenney took over the UCP there was still a lot of talk about listening to the grassroots, although that did not always happen and sometimes this was just paid lip service. Now it seems the grassroots are dead unless what they are saying goes along with the prevailing separatist extremist wing of the UCP led by Queen Dani.
So, we’re going to get permanent DST – Danielle Smith Time.
I don’t mind referenda on questions of public interest, and I voted in favour of perma-DST last time and would enthusiastically do so again. I agree with Nate Glubish that there’s no objectively right or wrong answer to how we should be setting our clocks (well, as long as we don’t end up with literal darkness at noon), so that leaves the balance of Albertans’ personal preferences, and mine is for long, languid summer evenings and a bit more afternoon daylight in winter than we have currently. On the other hand, the previous referendum set a precedent, it’s probably much too early to hold another, and I’m instinctively resistant to TINA-style arguments regardless of the issue. So I’m happy with the prospect of perma-DST, but not with the way it’s being imposed. Disappointing as I found the outcome last time – we were SO close! – the issue really should be left alone for a good long while, to respect our democratically expressed collective will.
Nate Glubish.
Never before has a name perfectly foreshadowed the appearance of its owner.
Rick Bell.
Better referred to as Rick Bell-end.
Obviously the separatists will be thrilled to know that it doesn’t matter what the people of Alberta decide in a referendum this fall. Alberta Orbán gets what Alberta Orbán wants. Just wait until the trains arrive to take citizens deemed disposable by the Alberta government to secure compounds (that seem a lot like concentration camps) for “addictions treatment”, where you can check in anytime but you can never leave. Shall we call them Grizzly Gulags?
Do we understand now why Alberta’s electoral boundaries are about to be gerrymandered by the current regime?
The will of the people means nothing in this province. Democracy is dying. First they came for the trans children.
Ça ira, Alberta Orbán. Ça ira.
In my view it should be “Dictator Dani”, as she ignores rules, laws, the constitution or anything she remotely dislikes and does the opposite.
The UCP are so brazen they totally reject any ideas from the NDP like: rent controls, increasing the minimum wage, stopping kicking tens of thousands off AISH and so on. The things which would actually help people. Minister Jason Nixon made a spectacle of berating the NDP idea of helping people get their first house by saying “I encourage everybody in this House to always vote against what
the NDP have to say.”
It is quite amazing to see the difference from the Lougheed, Getty days until now. They too had a majority government but at times would actually listen to the people and change course. None of that appears to be true any more.
Can I start laughing now?
The absolute Three Stooges mishaps this is going to cause will be hilarious to watch. Computers, phones…all those tech tools we rely on to act as our daybooks and remind of us appointments, set up banking transactions, etc do not care about Dixie Dani And Her Cult of Certifiable StoneAgers personal feefees about having to wake up earlier. There is no such thing as “Alberta Standard Time” in the computer lexicon as far as I know and I doubt anyone’s gonna be re-writing the code for every tech device in the world to suit her whims. On a tech device/computer, the location automatically picks your time zone.
Will Albertans only be allowed to buy certified devices that have Alberta Time + Location, included?
The cost alone of switching all of Alberta’s government tech infrastructure well, I wonder cui bono?
This is Danielle Smith’s Gulf of America. I’m sure Colorado won’t mind switching to “Alberta Standard Time” every spring.
“And if you don’t get the answer you want, they have obviously concluded, you can just ignore it. ”
David’s comment is obviously correct, but the good news is that it sets a very useful precedent for the NDP to campaign on, if there is an election next year: we will ignore the results of the Alberta Sovereignty referendum.
I agree, Bob. This would not only be fair, it would allow voters feeling hoodwinked by the separatists – when they reveal (a) their leadership is entirely made up of 51st Staters, (b) they intend to unilaterally declare independence even without a credible mandate to proceed with negotiations, (c) they are lying about almost everything, and (d) they are supported by large amounts of foreign money, not just MAGA American but also from other world powers to whose form of government peaceful and prosperous Canada is a bad example – to have a second kick at the can. It would serve as do-over not permitted in most such maliciously designed and intended referenda. DJC
Two takeaways. In another PM column your former co-worker the Dinger (as one of the last ones standing, does that make him the dingiest?) refers to himself as a dimwit malcontent* (no argument here). Second, while tongue in cheek, your questioning the need for a Legislative Assembly comes to mind every time there is a pearls clutching article about the need for more MLAs to ensure ‘effective representation’. With the Decider making decisions, we would save money with fewer, not more, supplicant backbenchers.
*So you don’t get sued, it is in Bell’s CH article in the Sports section about the Flames.
Dave: I have my issues with Mr. Bell’s opinions, but, like me, he is an old timey journalist who I am sure believes that if you’re going to dish it out you should be able to take it. In defence of his telegraphic writing style, as I believe I have said here before, that is that way all “newsmen” of our generation were taught to write. Few of us do any more, but I always find it both charming and nostalgic when I come across it. He is far from being the dingiest Postmedia columnist, even in Alberta. DJC
Oh no, more shadowy groups we need to fear – Big BBQ and Big Golf. If I remember correctly, it was Westjet threatening to move it’s HQ out of the province that sank a previous effort to move Alberta to permanent daylight savings time. Maybe that’s moot now that BC is doing it.
And now for something completely different….can’t wait for May 2 when we’ll no longer be tripping over separatist signing petition tables and walking into enormous waving blue flags. Noticed several set up in my small town yesterday. Odd thing about it – the people collecting signatures were all of working age and I didn’t recognize any of them. As I said, small town. Everybody knows everyone else. Who are these people? Are they unemployed or working for a third party? Funded by Big BBQ?
There’s a pleasant but somewhat inscrutable song by Anna Giacomini with the line, “The stars shine bright at 9:30 Alberta time.” Perhaps referring to future winter mornings in the northern half of the province.
And here I assumed the whole point of permanent Daylight Savings Time was to distract everyone from the gerrymandering scandal.
Robert Tiessen: The UCP’s MH Care (Corrupt Care) scandal, that is over half a billion dollars is a major issue too.
I often wonder (several times every day) why people in Alberta are so easily duped. Maybe they didn’t grow up with a grandfather who told them, “Beware of highwaymen and wear an old coat.” Perennial advice, then and now. Works just as well in 2026 Alberta as during the Great Depression.
Danielle Smith would very much like everyone talk about anything other than the search warrants the RCMP have executed and the evidence they are doubtlessly compiling wrt the corrupt care scandal, pissing away an oil boom, destroying Alberta’s health care system, eastern slopes coal mining, kidnapping drug users, putting school children in isolation with no form of due process, spending more than the average albertan makes in a year for fancy new carpets…..
Good thing I remember !
Oh and respectfully DJC, she called the dog that because the Buck stops with her. She’s truly an egomaniac the likes of which alberta has never seen. She’s always right, and if you disagree you probably aren’t even a “real albertan”
Like I said, I got words for these people that are beneath the dignity of this blog. Maga Harpie will work for now.fly away Dani, everyone despises you except the sycophants.
“I think I make the rules.”
“Ms. Smith is the Decider, and what the Decider decides is what happens.”
Channeling the Shrub?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irMeHmlxE9s
Or the authoritarian “I think I make the rules.” Harper?
Probably both, as the selection process, as it is, has already decided which authoritarian minded individuals will be suitable for occupying a position of elected political power in an hierarchical society dedicated to serving the interests of both corporate power and the economically privileged in society, in other words those individuals that are responsible for setting the overall agenda and directing/controlling the mass audience.
Individuals in the elected political managerial class are chosen to serve the surrounding power system in society and such individuals are therefore carefully selected for their obedience and conformity to those beliefs and attitudes that constitute the representative framework of that same hierarchical power system.
Meanwhile, issues of greater concern are soft-pedaled by a government [and their MSM lackeys] that has been captured by and thus slavishly serves corporate power.
See for example,
“An oil and gas company just left behind an estimated $476M cleanup bill in Alberta”
https://thenarwhal.ca/alberta-long-run-exploration-liabilities/
“Alberta Time” Really? Did Smith call it that, so her base could puff their chests out with pride? So they could go to other provinces and brag, “we’re better than you, because we have Alberta time!” This whole UPC thing, of bad decisions, the bad management of everything and corruption, just screams daytime television. The Dumb and the Hopeless, Another Scandal, or the Days of our Not with standing Clause.
Queen Daniella decided and that is it. Amazing how these libertarians are the worse control freaks. I agree with your question – Why bother having a Legislature? With the majority obsession we have and the control freak politicians, Legislatures are just places for circus. That is our democratic type system anyway – a Circus. Rick Bell is a ring leader. I wonder where these people developed their common sense, if they have any. He seems to be a paid bot and not even the AI version.
Part of BC is on “Mountain Time” – presumably those BC residents will be on “Alberta Time”?
Some have joked SK was ahead of it’s time when it opted to never change it’s clocks year round. As DJC mentioned, BC is no longer changes it’s clocks, now it’s AB turn. This could start a trend for rest of Canada & some parts of the US.
Changing clocks can be a real inconvenience. Maybe AB can give it a trial for a few short years & then see if more AB support increases for not changing clocks.