I have voted for at least a half dozen parties over the years.
I'm not a huge fan of Fords either, but compared to what the Liberals put forward (McGuinty, Wynne, Trudeau), Ford comes off looking good.
Substitute in a Chretien, Martin, or Peterson and they could likely easily defeat Ford.
Regarding education, there seems to be only 2 solutions; give the teachers everything they want, or put up with strikes as soon as anything is reigned in just a bit. It really comes down to who should run the education, the Ministry of Education, or the teachers union. I suggested the voucher system as an alternative to the above 2, and it would force the teachers union to care about the quality of education, or they would lose jobs.