Political Entry Number… Eh, Who Cares.

Today's Globe & Mail includes an article about how Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn spent $149,389 on aircraft rentals, but never declared them as expenses.

What gets really interesting, though, is the second half of the article, which talks about how the lack of disclosure, combined with ways to avoid their much-vaunted accountability guidelines, appears to be an ongoing trend with the current Conservative government.  Text of that half below the cut.

The revelations come as Tory House Leader Peter Van Loan launches what he's calling Democratic Reform Week in the Commons, a week designed to highlight the minority government's accountability measures.

But many of the new rules appear aimed at Conservative adversaries as much as at general good governance.

An official from the Prime Minister's Office recently followed a journalist off Parliament Hill, then approached the reporter to challenge a story about the PMO's refusal to disclose how Mr. Harper's travelling hairdresser is being paid.

The official told the reporter three times that accountability measures are for crooks, not honest people.

It appears to be a theme in the Harper government.

While stressing the need for clear rules and transparency for others, the cabinet continues to tightly control information, censor documents and only selectively disclose ministerial expenses.

Mr. Martin of the NDP has been one of the government's strongest opposition supporters in pushing through its vaunted Accountability Act. He now says that he spent a lot of "political capital" backing the Tories and has become seriously disillusioned.

"There is a scheme going on to mislead Canadians about how the Conservatives are spending money," said the Winnipeg MP. "It's contradictory because they have cried bloody murder for years that the Liberals were not transparent and accountable, and now they are doing the same."

"There is a deliberate conspiracy to masquerade the costs."

Mr. Van Loan says the government remains committed to its accountability agenda and denies there is any lack of transparency on expenses.

"I think overall there's been pretty good disclosure," said the Tory minister. "But there hasn't been a lot for most of us to disclose, because we don't do much in terms of spending and entertaining and travel and all that stuff."

But outside experts and political opponents have questioned how senior ministers or their political staff can regularly dine out with stakeholders while showing no hospitality expenses. One explanation is that government officials who fall under the "proactive disclosure" policy are getting others to pick up the tab.

One senior government communications director recently invited a private sector employee to an expensive restaurant in Ottawa, arrived first and ordered an expensive bottle of wine, and at the end of the meal, pushed the bill across the table, flatly stating the guest had to pay.

It is anecdotes like these that make "horsefeathers" of the Conservative explanation that all expenses are somewhere on the books, says Mr. Martin.

"We want the whole story. If a minister is spending money, we want to know.

"We are detecting a disturbing pattern of lack of transparency among cabinet ministers. We were already sick of this game with the Liberals."

I've said it before, I'll probably say it again: the current government appears to be big on appearances, not on actually doing anything.