Changing Edmonton to Calgary was: Re: Renaming Saigon to TP Ho Chi Minh

[Brian Inglis]

On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:30:17 +0000 (UTC), Progfou <jean-christophe.andre at auf.org> wrote:

>Robert Elz <kre <at> munnari.OZ.AU> writes:
>> [...]
>> The big advantage to the "largest population centre" is that it applies
>> easily, and without much in the way of arguments, in all zones.
>
>Thanks for these examples.
>
>> What might be possible would be to support "political" links, as well as
>> backwards compatability links, and perhaps have a rule that if there is
>> no zone named for the capital of a country, a political link for it be
>> created (linked to whatever is the "correct" timezone according to our rules).
>
>I strongly second this!!
>If it's doable without too much hassle, please do!!

I personally don't have a problem with using political capitals for zones, 
as zones are altered by political decisions. 

However by your rules, the Canadian basis for the Mountain Time zone in Alberta 
should be changed from Edmonton to Calgary, as Calgary has had a larger population 
for the municipality, urban, and metropolitan census areas than Edmonton for years, 
and the difference is still climbing. 
Edmonton should be retained as a backward compatibility link. 

The following pages contain both 2001 and 2006 census stats: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_100_largest_municipalities_in_Canada_by_population
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_100_largest_urban_areas_in_Canada_by_population
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_100_largest_metropolitan_areas_in_Canada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary
http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/geo/geohack.php?pagename=Calgary&params=51_02_42_N_114_03_26_W_type:city
Coordinate 51°2'42"N, 114°3'26"W  
Decimal 51.045°, -114.057222° 
LMT -7:36:13.73328

Diffs against 2008a are:

--- tz2008a/backward	2007-12-31 08:23:08 -0700
+++ backward	2008-03-21 03:57:02 -0700
@@ -52,3 +52,4 @@ Link	America/Regina		Canada/East-Saskatc
 Link	America/Toronto		Canada/Eastern
-Link	America/Edmonton	Canada/Mountain
+Link	America/Calgary		America/Edmonton
+Link	America/Calgary		Canada/Mountain
 Link	America/St_Johns	Canada/Newfoundland
--- tz2008a/northamerica	2007-12-03 07:50:40 -0700
+++ northamerica	2008-03-21 04:30:32 -0700
@@ -1572,3 +1572,3 @@ Rule	Edm	1972	2006	-	Oct	lastSun	2:00	0	
 # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
-Zone America/Edmonton	-7:33:52 -	LMT	1906 Sep
+Zone America/Calgary	-7:36:14 -	LMT	1906 Sep
 			-7:00	Edm	M%sT	1987
--- tz2008a/zone.tab	2007-12-31 08:23:08 -0700
+++ zone.tab	2008-03-21 04:00:14 -0700
@@ -122,3 +122,3 @@ CA	+5024-10439	America/Regina	Central St
 CA	+5017-10750	America/Swift_Current	Central Standard Time - Saskatchewan - midwest
-CA	+5333-11328	America/Edmonton	Mountain Time - Alberta, east British Columbia &
west Saskatchewan
+CA	+5103-11403	America/Calgary	Mountain Time - Alberta, east British Columbia & west
Saskatchewan
 CA	+690650-1050310	America/Cambridge_Bay	Mountain Time - west Nunavut

-- 
Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis 	Calgary, Alberta, Canada