I give the scheming HQ Cons a bit more credit than Ford will ever be due.
He's their 'Useful Idiot', the flag they fly when people are getting kicked in the groin, the undertaker, the get-away car driver hit-man. And then when the dirty work is done, they dump him, and then run someone far more electable like, hmmmm...let's see now...oh yeah, Elliot, the one they made the deal with...so she can get elected for being "the good cop" as opposed to the "cop out" who "we all knew was a fuck-up after all"...
Except that's all predicated on Joe and Josephine Jerkoff conveniently forgetting who installed the moron in the first place. And given a remade Liberal or NDP or even a 'Centrist Party of Ontario' (that melds the two and more) not happening...an unlikely scenario, as time after time in this province, and Canada, absolutely routed parties have risen again out of the ashes.
John Tory might also turn out to be a "Useful Idiot" to die on the mantle of the Battle of the Ford...since there's no way Tory can achieve what he claims to be able to. And neither can Ford.
Four years to clear the air. Might not be that bad of a deal in the end, we'll see.