There’s often a silly season that erupts at the start of an election campaign. The parties haven’t released their platforms yet, the issues aren’t usually defined, and the conversation starts to turn on the damndest things.

Which I think is why there was a flurry on Twitter today—including a few people I follow—about whether Stephen Harper is legally barred from running for office, based on a blog post that claimed:

• The House of Commons has found Stephen Harper guilty of contempt of Parliament.
• Contempt of Parliament is an election-related crime.
• Under the Canada Elections Act, individuals found guilty of election-related crimes can’t be an MP for five to seven years after conviction.

If you’re convinced that Stephen Harper is taking Canada in the wrong direction, then this probably sounds pretty damned appealing. But it ought to ring some alarm bells. And before you reach for the “retweet” button, maybe you want to check the source.

Because every single point they make is wrong. Bearing in mind that I’m not a lawyer, here we go:

• Stephen Harper wasn’t “found guilty” of anything. The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs found (PDF) that the government was in contempt of Parliament, in a report where neither Harper’s name nor the phrase “Prime Minister” appears even once. The House of Commons then voted on a non-confidence motion and the government was defeated.
• Contempt of Parliament isn’t an election-related crime. (It isn’t a crime at all.) You won’t find it anywhere in the Canada Elections Act or the Criminal Code. (You can, however, find a reference in House of Commons Procedure and Practice, which makes it clear that any misconduct can be deemed to be contempt and that it’s up to the House of Commons to decide how to punish it.)
• The Canada Elections Act is actually very specific about which offenses bar someone from office. They range from publishing a false statement of withdrawal of candidate to trying to vote more than once… but they don’t include contempt of Parliament.

It’s easy to find examples of MPs who have been found directly, personally in contempt of Parliament—Ian Waddell, for example, who was found in contempt in 1991 for touching the Mace but who ran in the 1993 federal election.

And it’s not like this is a slip-up from a normally authoritative source. The blog making this claim also has some other fringe views—including the belief that the recent earthquake in Japan was deliberately caused by the U.S. government.

None of this information is hard to find. And the blog’s idiosyncratic viewpoint isn’t exactly concealed from view.

If you’re one of the people who retweeted this, please: a little due diligence goes a long way, and can keep you from forwarding this kind of misinformed idiocy. And it can keep us talking about the stuff that matters—like the Harper government’s appalling environmental record, or the actual substance of their contempt for Parliament—instead of easily-debunked distractions like this.

The Royal Canadian Air Farce‘s Roger Abbott has died after a private 14-year battle with leukemia.

I owe the Air Farce folks a lot for their encouragement back when I was a callow teenager hoping for a career as a writer and comedian. Apparently my experience is no exception; everything I’ve heard about the Air Farce team has suggested they’re some of the most generous folks in the business — and Roger Abbott would have topped that list.

Don Ferguson has posted this message on the front page of the Air Farce web site:

I’m heartbroken to tell you that our beloved friend, Roger Abbott, died last night at Toronto General Hospital, fourteen years after being diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a progressive disease that he kept secret from all but a few close friends and family until a week ago. Roger was the guiding light of Royal Canadian Air Farce since it began in 1973, and all of us who have had the honour of working with him and the pleasure of knowing him will dearly miss his kindness, generosity, integrity, leadership, and wonderful sense of humour. The family requests privacy at this painful time. God bless Roger!

To all the folks who think it’s just too soon since the last election, consider this:

When Canadians chose the last Parliament, Chrome wasn’t even in stable release yet.

Oh, and George Bush was still President of the United States. But the Chrome thing is what got me.

The moon rose as my plane was taxiing to the runway at Trudeau, and I wasn’t fast enough to shoot it in the few instants it was visible outside my window.

So I drew it instead:

An inspiring and humbling reminder of the majesty of the universe, no?

I’ll be heading to sunny (if the forecasts are correct) Washington, DC later this week to toonblog the Nonprofit Technology Conference. It’s an annual gathering of nonprofit tech practitioners who work with organizations large and small. I’ve been to previous NTCs in Seattle and San Francisco, and they were terrific.

I’m especially looking forward to toonblogging the session Beth Kanter is convening, I Found My Free Agent, Now What? That’s partly because Beth’s a good friend, a genuine expert and a fantastic facilitator, and partly because my mandate is to whip off cartoons as fast as humanly possible.

This will be only my third time in DC. I love it there; for a politics junkie, this is Disneyland. (They even have a 1:1 scale model of the White House!) If you’re coming to NTC too, please look me up. And if not, you can follow it on #11ntc on Twitter.

As I type this on the dining room table, the kitchen is alive with smells of oregano, maple syrup, tomato, beef, chicken, and a touch of garlic.

I’m making spaghetti for Alex and me and chicken drumsticks for the kids. It’s no virtuoso performance – I didn’t even break out the chef’s knife, and the garlic came pre-crushed – but it’s still dinner, and it’ll be on the table soon.

Which is what my mother did for us for decades, except for a larger crowd and from scratch. Spaghetti night was one of her signature occasions, and I thought of her as I shook the dried oregano leaves into the skillet a few minutes ago. Oregano is the smell I associate more than any other with dinner, with that collection of pots and pans bubbling and steaming away on the stove, and with my mom hummingbirding from burner to sink to cupboard to fridge and back, phone receiver tucked between cheek and shoulder with our absurdly long cord straining to keep it connected.

It wasn’t until I was quite a bit older that I had even an inkling of just how hard she was working to bring this all together, to choreograph the salad and the pasta and sauce and the buns. She made it seem effortless enough that I thought it was just what Mom did, the way some people hum and others flip quarters through their fingers.

Every once in a while, we’d volunteer a comment about something smelling nice. But it was woven so tightly into the texture of my lives that I was oblivious to the effort she went to to create a great dinner every night.

Later on, once I had a few terms of home ec under my belt, I’d even make the odd dinner. I think I did it maybe four or five times… and each time, Mom made me feel like I was the best son on Earth.

Tonight my children commented delightedly on the chicken as I set it down in front of them, and then abandoned it after a few nibbles. Somewhere, I hope my mother is chuckling. Happy birthday, Mom.

If part of your job with a non-profit organization is to chase grants, then you may have found the proposal-writing process… well, a little dull at times.

That’s especially true if you’re applying for support from the kind of buttoned-down funding source that favors turgid, lifeless prose over imagination or creativity.

But here’s some good news: your brain’s left hemisphere can release its death-grip on your right hemisphere. Because the CTK Foundation—which celebrates non-profits and promotes technology to address the root causes of social issues—is offering a $10,000 USD grant to an American, British or Canadian non-profit… and the way you apply is by writing an original poem.

The poem should be four to eight lines long, and you have until March 28th to write it. The $10,000 award also includes having your submission turned into a song performed by Bill Dillon (recently exonerated thanks to the Innocence Project of Florida after nearly three decades in prison). You can find the details at http://communitytech.net.

There are additional awards on the line as well:

• 2nd place award is a cash grant of $5,000 (US) or its value in foreign currency
• The 2011 Blogger’s Choice Award, where a randomly selected blogger participating in spreading the word among nonprofits about the H&S Grant Award Program will choose a nonprofit applicant to receive a $1,000 cash grant or its value in foreign currency
• 2 steel-stringed guitars, signed by all members of Los Lonely Boys (which you can auction for fund-raising)
• Up to 20 technology grants, valued at $10,000, to nonprofits that indicate an interest

The deadline for applications is March 28, so wake up your muse—or challenge your staff, volunteers, supporters or clients—and find the poetry in your organization’s mission!