adma
Superstar
Both your points don't hold up to the reality in the last election..
People came out to vote provincially in greater numbers than they ever did over the Ontario Liberal Years with over 58% turnout the highest since 1999. I am quite certain the next Ontario election will see a strong turnout as well.
In Comparison it was in 2007 52%, 2011 48%, 2014 51%.
Therefore people were far more engaged in this election than any recent Ontario election, so the point about people being lazy is false. Maybe the turnout should be higher but in comparison to the norm, it was up by a good amount
Also Ford got a lot of PC support in non-traditional PC ridings showing he got votes outside the typical 'serial conservative base' and likely poached the moderate vote that usually went liberal the past 15 years.
Arguably the increased turnout worked both ways. Maybe it's more a matter of presumed "mushy middle" hegemonies that generate low turnouts.
Also, who's to say strong turnout will work out on the Tories' behalf, as opposed to the opposition's behalf--2015 federally was the highest turnout in ages, and it worked out on behalf of the Liberals. (The Cons only lost about 200,000 raw votes from their 2011 majority.)