Pam Palmater says Bill C-45 is intended to break up Aboriginal communities and assimilate First Nations peoples.

Pam Palmater — the runner-up to Sean Atleo in last summer's Assembly of First Nations' election — says that the Idle No More protest is only going to get bigger thanks to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s "aggressive 'assimilatory'" agenda.

In an email exchange with Yahoo! Canada News on Wednesday, the Mi'kmaq lawyer and Chair of the Centre for Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University gave us her take about what the Idle No More movement was all about and where this is all going.

She also offered her opinion as to why Chief Theresa Spence — who is currently on a hunger strike in order to meet with Harper — would reject to an audience with Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan and Aboriginal Senator Patrick Brazeau, both of whom requested meetings over the Christmas break.

Here are some of the excerpts from our email exchange:

Hundreds came to listen to Idle No More movement leaders outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday.Y! Canada News: Idle No More started as a protest against the Tories' latest omnibus budget bill. It seems to have morphed into something much bigger. Has

What would you like to do on July 1, 2017 for Canada's 150th birthday?

For those of you, like me, who still haven't planned what they're doing this New Year's eve that's a daunting question. It's a question, however, our government will soon be asking us.

According to PostMedia News, heritage minister James Moore is poised to launch a nation wide "brain storming" session about the milestone birthday.

"The cross-country series of public consultations will begin next month and continue until June, with people from every corner of Canada invited to pitch ideas about ways to mark the sesquicentennial of Confederation in 2017, expected to be the biggest outpouring of patriotic fervour since the nation's 100th anniversary in 1967.

Moore said he expected the public consultations would "maybe stir up a little bit of creativity or thought from people who live in different parts of the country.""

The Feds began hearings about the sesquicentennial celebration, in 2011 with a guest list that

According to a new poll, the top political story of the year was the Harper government's Budget 2012.By now, you've invariably heard what all the pundits have had to say about the top political stories of 2012 — well, now the people have spoken.

According to a new Ipsos Reid poll, conducted on behalf of Global TV and PostMedia News, the top political story of the year was the Harper government's Budget 2012.

The Tories' somewhat austere budget slashed government spending by about $5.2 billion, eliminated 19,200 jobs for the public sector and increased the age of CPP eligibility to 67.

Incidentally, it was also the launch pad of two very controversial omnibus budget implementation bills — Bill C-38 and Bill C-45 — which incited much debate and even national protests.

On budget day — March 28 — Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters that the government was just staying "on plan."

"We want to get to a balanced budget in the medium term, he said.  "To do that we have to reduce the expenditures of government."

• Top 10 economic and political stories
• Top 10 stories

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh photoJust in time for Christmas, a new report suggests that Ontarions are a very giving people.

Unfortunately, the giving is not on purpose.

The Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation's latest study about Canada's fiscal imbalance suggests that Ontario is the biggest loser when it comes to our country's equalization program — the federal scheme that redistributes federal tax dollars as a way to promote comparable public services in all 10 provinces.

"Fiscal disparities in Canada are increasingly driven by commodities, yet our fiscal arrangements do not redistribute commodity wealth. This places Ontario in a unique situation, lacking the natural resources of the oil and gas provinces, but also significantly more prosperous than the traditional Equalization-receiving provinces.

In practice, this means that funds continue to be redistributed away from Ontario to support traditional Equalization-receiving provinces at a time when Ontario’s fiscal capacity is below the national average."

The report

Manitoba Tory leader Brian Pallister finally spoke out against the comments on Thursday, but rejected a call from aboriginal leaders to apologize on behalf of the party.One of the biggest news stories in Manitoba this week was that of now former Conservative youth-wing president Braydon Mazurkiewich.

Last Friday, Mazurkiewich wrote a Twitter and Facebook post saying that a planned urban First Nations reserve on a former military base was designed for "hard-working men and women of the military, not free-loading Indians.''

Mazurkiewich resigned his post almost immediately and offered a somewhat veiled apology. Manitoba Tory leader Brian Pallister finally spoke out against the comments on Thursday, but rejected a call from aboriginal leaders to apologize on behalf of the party.

[ Related: Manitoba Tory leader denounces racist online comments, but won't apologize ]

Certainly — I think most of us would agree — that Mazurkiewich's comments were racist and required penalty.

But how different are his comments from comments on media message boards, this week, with regard to stories about the 'Idle No More' campaign?

Here is a a sampling of some of the

It seems that the default defender of the Harper government with regard to the 'Idle No More' protests is none other than Conservative senator Patrick Brazeau.

Over the past week, the sometimes controversial Aboriginal senator from Quebec has taken to social media to defend the Tories' Bill C-45 and its measures which would impact aboriginal communities and the review process for land and resource development projects.

[ Related: Aboriginal leaders to launch national protest in Ottawa demanding change ]

On Thursday, he went on APTN News, and said that he was a little confused as to what the protests are about.

"Unfortunately we're seeing a lot of push-back [to Bill C-45] but I think a lot of [it] is because a lot of fear mongering and some misinformation...There has been a lot of consultation on this Bill.

There is a movement called 'Idle No More,' I am not quite sure what it’s

Alberta Finance Minister Doug Horner explains to reporters Wednesday why the province's economic forecast for 2013 is so gloomy.Governments of natural resourced based economies obviously do well when commodity prices are high, and struggle when prices tank.

That's the brutal reality currently facing governments in British Columbia and Alberta and to some extent, Saskatchewan.

On Wednesday, Alberta Finance Minister Doug Horner said poor access to markets, volatile oil prices and increased production in the United States will have a negative $6 billion effect on the province's 2013-14 budget.

"I'm very, very concerned about where those (oilsands) numbers are headed," he said. according to the Canadian Press.

[ Related: Alberta finance minister offers gloomy forecast for 2013 ]

"This is a situation that is actually affecting the Canadian GDP. It's that much of an impact on the Canadian economy."

Horner also hinted that the province will have to consider emergency austerity measures to make-up the difference and may have to break promises made in the 2012 election campaign.

Alberta isn't the only provinces facing

As we approach Christmas, political pundits and analysts always like to look back and reflect upon the year that was.

One of Political Points' traditions (well, we started it last year) is the annual list of Canadian politicians who have nice and who have been naughty.

So here it is: The...ahem...world famous 2012 Political Points naughty or nice list.

The Naughty List:

While the North Pole won't disclose their official naughty lists, I think it's a safe bet that the following politicians won't be getting a visit from old Saint Nick on the 25th.

- Toronto mayor Rob Ford for chasing a reporter off his property, for reading while driving, for skipping work to attend football practices and for improperly participating in a City Council debate about donations he collected for his personal football charity in 2010.

- London, Ont. mayor Joe Fontana for allegedly using taxpayer money to pay for his son's wedding in 2005 and for not stepping down as mayor despite charges laid against him by