OR... Or, maybe it wasn't so magnificent of him to do another couple years as GG.  Maybe he became GG in the first place because he got Mulroney out of the hot water that could have lead to criminal charges.  Maybe Harper meant it when he said of Johnson, "Whatever we paid him for this, it wasn't enough" on rigging the system to get Mulroney out of the crosshairs.

Maybe his extended term was to make sure Johnson, a long time Tory would see things go Harper's way if things got close.  Remember Harper was insisting that the party with the most seats must form government.  We see clearly in B.C. how this is not true if you have a GG acting dispassionately.

His effort to "strengthen the role of the Queen in Canada" make perfect sense in the context of Harper's quest to redefine the Tories around a nationalist idea of God, Queen, and the military.

Personally, I'd like to see another GG that was 'just' a broadcaster or other average person.