You're absolutely right. ABSTENTION is not neutrality. Did you cast a ballot? Even a blank ballot? You can cast what's called a "ruined ballot" and it still counts as a vote.

Not voting at all, not casting a ballot at all is neutrality, not abstention. Watch any parliamentary preceding. When they take votes, the speaker asks every individual. Those there vote yay or nay. If they don't, they literally say the words "I abstain". Then they ask the reps who aren't there to vote. No one is in the seat to vote.

They are two very VERY different terms.

It's not that difficult.

Go fucking vote. Vote for your dog. Just vote. Not voting votes for the winner.

You don't get a pass because you're too fucking lazy to support democracy. "But I don't like any party" then vote for an independent. But cast a fucking ballot.

to be able to vote, you must have a permanent address. everyone who does not have a permanent address because they can't afford housing, did they vote for Doug Ford? children can't vote, did they vote for Doug Ford by not being old enough to vote?

Let's at least TRY to be honest. We know the percentage of "voter turnout" vs "eligible voters". Not a single person who works with Elections counts children and homeless people as "non-voters". Take that fucking strawman back to the farm field and leave it there.

Just because you want to rationalize people who are eligible to vote not doing so because they're lazy, uninterested pieces of shit that are literally a bigger problem than Ford and his party.... Doesn't give you a pass.

If people actually WANTED to gain political knowledge, WANTED to vote, Ford wouldn't still be Premier. But people are lazy, dumb, uneducated, and don't care.

I'm nearly 40. I've voted in every provincial and federal election I could have since I could. I stay connected to politics. I learn. I want to learn. I want to be educated. Because I know politics affects everything from policy to groceries to gas prices to housing to road infrastructure to schools to.....

Refusing to participate in democracy is a choice. A shit choice, an uneducated choice, and an ignorant choice.