One of the most interesting examples of positive discrimination is the communities of interest in Canada. Many of the provincial electoral management bodies have made relatively important corrections to the principle of equality of the vote to admit the collective rights of groups of representation identified, denominated communities of interest.
The legal basis of this positive discrimination is found in the Law on the Revision of Constituency Boundaries. Its article 9 establishes that the division of each province will be done in such a way that its population will correspond to the population quotient as much as possible and that in general, the difference should not exceed 25% - except in extraordinary circumstances. But it permits the provinces to observe these circumstances on the grounds of the territory, to avoid that constituencies in the north are too big because of their surface area, or due to the existence of communities of interest.
This is a generic concept, which may be based on territorial grounds (for example, to avoid the division of certain municipalities or regions for purely electoral purposes), but also on the existence of groups of humans, distinguished for ethnic, racial, religious, cultural or other reasons, considered relevant upon setting boundaries for constituencies and whose observation creates inequality in the value of the right to vote of the rest.
'Determining boundaries
9 (1) In determining the area to be included in and in fixing the boundaries of proposed electoral districts, the commission must be governed by the following principles:
(a) that the principle of representation by population be achieved, recognizing the imperatives imposed by geographical and demographic realities, the legacy of our history and the need to balance the community interests of the people of British Columbia;
(b) to achieve that principle, the commission be permitted to deviate from a common statistical Provincial electoral quota by no more than 25%, plus or minus;
(c) the commission be permitted to exceed the 25% deviation principle where it considers that very special circumstances exist.
(2) For the purpose of making proposals under section 3 (2), the commission must take into account the following:
(a) geographic and demographic considerations, including the sparsity, density or rate of growth of the population of any part of British Columbia and the accessibility, size or physical configuration of any part of British Columbia;
(b) the availability of means of communication and transportation between various parts of British Columbia.'
