The most eloquent of all voices is that of “the people” when they “speak” in an election. While there may be difficulties and ambiguities in carrying out the result of an election, there is no ambiguity with the result itself: parties assume their posts in dutiful obeisance to the command of the electorate.

Last week Canadians voted to send 143 Conservatives, 77 Liberals, 49 Bloc Québecois and 37 New Democrats to the House of Commons. No Green party candidates were elected.

Stephen Harper returns to Ottawa as prime minister.  

We congratulate him and his colleagues in the Conservative party on their hard-fought election victory.

We also congratulate all the candidates of all the parties who participated in the election. As we in the West know, democracy is strengthened through the participation of its citizens. Offering oneself as a candidate is, of course, the highest, most demanding, most exposed form of participation in the process. Thus, we commend and thank all who ran.

All who won however must now set about the important task of governing the country.

We, therefore, join with Canadian Jewish Congress co-presidents Sylvain Abitbol and Rabbi Reuven Bulka in urging “a spirit of co-operation among all parties in the new Parliament to best deal with issues of critical significance to Canada and the international community.”

Those issues are many, and as events prove over and over again,  domestic issues are not easily, if at all, severable from international ones. For example, and most obviously, the global economic situation directly affects the Canadian economy and our ability to deal with matters of health, education, welfare, poverty, environment, industry and trade. Similarly, the global battle against terrorism affects our domestic vigilance against terrorism and terrorists. All such issues of critical significance will require principled, clear, adroit handling by the prime minister and the government.

These troubled and difficult times do indeed require a “spirit of co-operation” among all leaders and parties, less partisan cause and more common cause, less purely regional allegiance and more overtly national allegiance.

However, as Jeffrey Simpson astutely pointed out in last Saturday’s Globe and Mail, inter-party co-operation may be more hope than reality due to the the recurring dominance in Quebec of the separatist Bloc Québecois.

But our fervent wish is to the contrary.

Our hope is that the new Parliament will be a place where our legislators govern with wisdom, courage, courtesy and regard for the highest good of all Canadians.