The results from the www.mydemocracy.ca electoral reform survey are in — and what they tell us depends on who you ask. Early Tuesday evening, Karina Gould — the minister of democratic institutions — announced the release of a final report by Toronto-based Vox Pop Labs detailing how many Canadians completed the survey the company created and managed for the government.

“Over the course of its run,” the report noted, which lasted between December 5 and January 17, “an estimated 383,074 unique users completed the survey, with approximately 96 per cent of responses originating from within Canada.”

Far fewer (243,057) were “sufficiently profiled” or “validated on the basis of the socio-demographic information”, the report added.

There were 25,939,742 Canadians on the electors list in 2015 federal election.

If you go with the bigger number, 383,074, and generously assume they were all eligible electors, that’s under 1.5 per cent of Canadians who were allowed to vote in the last election.

Whether the participation rate was that low because electoral reform is a fringe issue that doesn’t interest most Canadians, as some argue, or because postcards sent to every Canadian household and media coverage weren’t enough to attract people to the site, is a matter of debate.

Both Vox Pop and the government, of course, concluded it was a success.

“The data suggest that MyDemocracy.ca was effective not only in increasing participation in the national dialogue on electoral reform, but also in extending the dialogue to a diverse array of Canadians,” the report says.

Gould thanked “the over 360,000 people in Canada who had their say about electoral reform”.

“We are grateful so many people participated in this innovative, interactive application to help us build a stronger, healthier democracy. I would also like to thank Vox Pop Labs for their hard work in delivering MyDemocracy.ca and providing this final report to us,” she said.

“We will carefully consider these findings as we move forward.”

The report found 67 per cent of Canadians were somewhat or very satisfied with the way democracy works in Canada; 53 per cent opposed mandatory voting; and 66 per cent opposed lowering the voting age.

With the exception of the 90 per cent of Canadians who supported placing limits on the terms of federal election campaigns, it was essentially an argument in favour of the status quo.

But again, with the participation rate as low as it was, the report doesn’t provide a mandate for any of those things.

“Yesterday’s silent release of the results of the mydemocracy.ca survey is deeply discouraging. While the report claims general satisfaction with our democracy in its executive summary, it is unable to conclude the same about our electoral system – because it never asked the question,” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said Wednesday.

With the special committee on electoral reform recommending a referendum on a proportional voting system in its report in early December (the Liberals opposed that recommendation in their dissenting report), it’s anyone’s guess what will be in the Liberals’ reform legislation this spring.

That is if they keep their campaign promise to table an electoral reform bill within 18 months of forming government.

At the start of his town hall tour a few weeks ago, the prime minister reiterated his preference for a ranked ballot when asked by a proponent of proportional representation.

“I’m on record from before I became prime minister suggesting that I think an option in which people can rank their choices is probably suitable for Canada, but I have showed consistently that I’m open to a broad range of perspectives and views, including yours,” he said.