Jason Kenney blurs the lines between his two jobs. mean misconduct?

Ok, this is really juicy. Jason Kenney, the Federal Citizenship, Immigration and Cultural affairs minister, is one of the most important people in Harper's cabinet. He is currently at the forefront of a Bev Oda-esque scandal, involving his misuse of government resources.

Let's start with a bit of background on the issue. Kenney's job requires he look after immigration, citizenship, and refugee issues. His department answers questions such as, "Who gets into Canada? and Who gets to stay here?". Kenney is also a Conservative MP, and like any other MP he wants his party to be (re)elected with a majority government. Therein lies the problem.

Kenney's duties as Conservative MP, such as fund raising for campaigning, are not supposed to be included in his day to day duties as Minister in cabinet. The scandal started when one of Kenney's underlings, The Director of Multicultural Affairs Kasra Nejatian accidentally forwarded a package to the wrong person. What was so significant about this misdirected package? It contained a document asking MPs to raise money for an ad campaign to target ethnic minorities. Ok, that's fine. But, it was printed on the letterhead of Kenney's other job: Minister of Federal Citizenship, Immigration and Cultural affairs.
The whole thing was blown out of the water when Kasra Nejatian sent the package to NDP MP Linda Duncan, instead of Conservative MP John Duncan. This is like when Nick Collins made an epic interception in Superbowl XLV. He was at the right place at the right time, and the ball fell beautifully into his arms. But, yeah... I can really see how that can be confusing....

sort of similar... but not really...

So whats the big deal here? Well, Jason Kenney's department blurred the lines between his job as conservative fundraiser and as minister. By using the letterhead for his minister position for party fund raising purposes, it could be argued he was unethically using his status as minister to exert extra influence on MPs. The opposition has also argued his department works entirely to capture information on ethnic minorities for the strict purpose of having the Harper government re-elected. In that case, Kenney would be using money and staff from his Minister's office to help Conservative campaigning (which is totally against the rules).

The opposition has attacked Kenney and called for his resignation. They accuse him of attempting to "purchase" ethnic votes before the election. But let's be serious, that's exactly what every political party does. They appeal to different groups of people. Seriously. Complaining about that, is like saying, "Oh no! The Conservatives are reaching out to ethnic minorities and new Canadians". If anything, the Liberals are jealous they are losing this former bastion of Liberal votes. Whether or not Conservatives legitimately help the ethnic minority community is a totally unrelated matter; but you can't fault them for making ads that appeal to minorities.

This also raises issues of politics within Kenney's department. Who is to blame for this letter head problem? Nejatian, who made the mistake of printing it on Ministerial letterhead and sending it to the wrong person (he already resigned)? Did Kenney direct his party correspondence to be printed on his Ministerial letterhead? How much time and money does his department dedicate to pursuing goals related to the bettering of the Conservative government?

The opposition wants him to resign. I don't think he will, because apparently no one really cares. After Bev Oda's debacle the polls didn't flinch and Harper continues to lead. I think this whole thing will unfortunately be forgotten and the Harper government will continue to have a (slightly stronger) minority government. Is this another instance of throwing a junior staffer under a bus?