It's official: #PlateGate is finally coming to an end in the next few weeks.

The government of Ontario has just announced that it will no longer be distributing its now-famously unreadable blue license plates after March 4, and will be issuing the older style plates (with the white background) after that date until an improved version of the blue plates becomes available.

The blue license plates 2.0 — hopefully without the extra glare — will be mailed out to affected Ontarians starting March 16. ServiceOntario locations will begin distributing the blue plates to the public when they run out of their new stock of white ones.

How does one screw up LICENSE PLATES?? We’ve had cars for more than a century! More evidence that the Ford govt really excels at incompetence. #onpoli #plategate https://t.co/GRQ14rJBUn

— Ishat Reza (@IshatReza) February 28, 2020

After Ontario residents discovered that Doug Ford's new blue license plates were almost impossible to read in the dark, the provincial government scrambled to work with manufacturer 3M Canada on an improved version.

At that point, nearly 100,000 of the defective plates had already been distributed to drivers, and ServiceOntario centres were stocked up with even more of them.

The hubbub over the issue became the joke that is #PlateGate, with people wondering how they would drive over the border and if they could now get away with taking the 407 ETR for free.

Ford's team adamantly defended the plates — which were his idea — before halfheartedly admitting there was a "problem" with them, then went on to blame manufacturer 3M while saying the plates were still better than the old "Liberal ones" and finally decided to officially recall them, all in the past two weeks.

I’m sick & tired of the Ford government wasting hard earned taxpayer dollars on stupid partisan stuff. Lawsuits, stickers, licence plates, destroying green energy projects, severance pay, booze from buck a beer to parties in parks etc. Worst government EVER.

— 🇨🇦 Luna 🇨🇦 (@Cdn_Luna) February 28, 2020

Though many consider the whole ordeal a gross waste of taxpayer money, it has at least been entertaining (in the way that clown shows generally are).