Readers offer New Year's resolutions for our nation, praise Rob Reiner, wish that Greta would grow up, condemn antisemitism, plus more

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Re: Economic progress won’t be easy in 2026 — Jack Mintz, Jan. 2

Despite the huge increase in the number of public servants since 2015, despite the even larger increase in the cost of the public service, every day the National Post publishes articles, usually on the front page, pointing out areas of government incompetence or indifference.

The list of failures is long. They include failure to deport criminal aliens (or even keep track of them), failure to appoint enough judges to get the courts moving, failure to protect Jewish Canadians during this extended period of increasingly violent antisemitism, failure to get a trade deal with the U.S., failure to attend to a 44-year-old patient having heart attack in a hospital ER waiting room, a failure that resulted in an unnecessary fatality, failure of the police to investigate documented online hate, failure to grow GDP per capita by any significant amount for a decade, failures in federal procurement, particularly military procurement, failure to properly manage an immigration program designed to attract immigrants with needed skills and waiting jobs, and failure to contain separatist sentiment in Quebec and Alberta.

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Indeed, it is hard to think of much that government touches in Canada that is successful. I’m certainly not an anarchist; government should play a positive role in society. My dismay is that citizens don’t demand better of our governments. There is daily praise for Prime Minister Mark Carney but I’m not sure for what, other than having raised the bar a bit from Justin Trudeau.

I, for one, can’t imagine why we accept mediocrity and are generally uncritical. We are a blessed country. We have almost unlimited resources, wealth beyond imagination compared with many other nations, an educated and skilled workforce, unlimited land and water, no real natural enemies on our border, oceans surrounding us on three sides and, Donald Trump’s musings notwithstanding, a relatively benign neighbour to the south. We should be thriving, not last in the G7 in terms of economic growth when population change is factored in.

It starts with government but it will take ordinary (and extraordinary) citizens to demand more and vote differently for us to live up to the potential with which we’ve been endowed. It’s a new year — let’s get started.

John Harris, Toronto

Re: Greta’s journey from child climate activist to terrorist mascot — Terry Newman, Dec. 30

Greta Thunberg certainly loves all the attention she gets, doesn’t she? But every stunt she pulls just makes her more tiresome. She comes from a privileged family and rather than thumbing her nose at that, she should show some gratitude and pay it forward. It........

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