This is why we can't have even minimally acceptable things

Here we go again. And somehow, the latest round of hysteria includes the Cons learning nothing from the failure of their attacks on coalitions or other forms of inter-party cooperation in the past, while the defence of a principle which has always enjoyed strong public support is getting weaker with time.

So let's once again be clear. We would be better governed if our political parties spent more time figuring out how to accomplish the goals they profess to share (or at least can view as mutually agreeable), rather than engaging in constant efforts to prove the other guys unfit for office (which ultimately succeed only to the extent of proving all parties right in that assertion).  

And for the NDP in particular, the politics and principle couldn't align much more cleanly: keep in mind that it was Jack Layton's defence of cooperation, and work to offer examples in practice, that helped shake voters out of their default allegiances to produce the party's best result ever. So even if it may be worth clarifying the facts on the ground, that needs to be coupled with a statement that a willingness to work across party lines to get results is a far more desirable attribute in both an opposition party and a prospective government than a refusal to consider anything of the sort.