Kluane / Wrangell-St. Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek

These parks comprise an impressive complex of glaciers and high peaks on both sides of the border between Canada (Yukon Territory and British Columbia) and the United States (Alaska). The spectacular natural landscapes are home to many grizzly bears, caribou and Dall's sheep. The site contains the largest non-polar icefield in the world.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/72

The Kluane/Wrangell-St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek National Parks (‘a new, less cumbersome name’ is requested for) in the Yukon and Alaska has spectacular mountainous setting, ongoing geological processes in the over 100 glaciers and is a diverse and abundant habitat for wildlife.

These parks offer combined marine, coastal, wild river and high mountain scenery with minimal extent of human modification. It has the largest protected population of grizzly bears in the world and the single largest group of Dall sheep.

Comparisons can be made to New Zealand’s SW/Fiordland and Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins/Laguna San Rafael National Parks.

Glacier Bay was added to the original nomination in 1992, and Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Wilderness Park in 1994.

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/site.php?id=72

Waterton Glacier International Peace Park

In 1932 Waterton Lakes National Park (Alberta, Canada) was combined with the Glacier National Park (Montana, United States) to form the world's first International Peace Park. Situated on the border between the two countries and offering outstanding scenery, the park is exceptionally rich in plant and mammal species as well as prairie, forest, and alpine and glacial features.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/354

Waterton Glacier International Peace Park is known for its superlative mountain scenery of glacial origin. Located on the border between Canada and the USA, Waterton Lakes and Glacier national parks form the world's first International Peace Park since 1932. 

Among its recorded plusses are a unique geological feature in the form of the Lewis overthrust. There are also superb examples of Precambrian rock formations, six species stromatolites (fossil algae) and 98% of the world's remaining stock of genetically pure Westslope Cutthroat Trout.

There have been three evaluations of a proposals of this site. Reservations were expressed and the site was rated as of secondary importance. It duplicates many values that can be seen in the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/site.php?id=354

Dinosaur Provincial Park

In addition to its particularly beautiful scenery, Dinosaur Provincial Park – located at the heart of the province of Alberta's badlands – contains some of the most important fossil discoveries ever made from the 'Age of Reptiles', in particular about 35 species of dinosaur, dating back some 75 million years.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/71

Dinosaur Provincial Park is renowned for its beautiful “badlands” and high number and quality of dinosaur fossils. 75 million years ago, rivers that flowed here deposited sand and mud. The conditions of the resulting landscape were excellent for the preservation of dinosaurs' bones as fossils.

The first dinosaur skeletons were recovered here in the 1880s. Over 40 dinosaur species have been found and more than 150 complete dinosaur skeletons, making it one of the richest dinosaur fossil locales in the world. The specimens represent every known group of Cretaceous dinosaurs. 

The park is situated in the valley of the Red Deer River in Alberta, Canada. It covers three distinct habitats: riverine, badlands and prairie. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/dinosaurpark.html

SGang Gwaay

The village of Ninstints (Nans Dins) is located on a small island off the west coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii). Remains of houses, together with carved mortuary and memorial poles, illustrate the Haida people's art and way of life. The site commemorates the living culture of the Haida people and their relationship to the land and sea, and offers a visual key to their oral traditions.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/157

SGang Gwaay are the remains of a Haida village on the eastern side of Anthony Island, which represent an outstanding example of a traditional Northwest Coast First Nations village site, complete with standing totem poles and the remains of cedar longhouses.

It was the southernmost of traditional Haida villages, being just west of and facing Kunghit Island, the southernmost island in the archipelago. Today it features the largest collection of Haida totem poles in their original locations, many celebrated as great works of art, though they are being allowed to succumb to the natural decay of the lush coastal rainforest climate. The site is extremely remote, and access is only by sea or air from towns in the northern part of the islands. 

SGang Gwaay was the location of several episodes in the early history of white contact with the isles. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/sgaanggwaii.html

Rideau Canal

The Rideau Canal, a monumental early 19th-century construction covering 202 km of the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers from Ottawa south to Kingston Harbour on Lake Ontario, was built primarily for strategic military purposes at a time when Great Britain and the United States vied for control of the region. The site, one of the first canals to be designed specifically for steam-powered vessels, also features an ensemble of fortifications. It is the best-preserved example of a slackwater canal in North America, demonstrating the use of this European technology on a large scale. It is the only canal dating from the great North American canal-building era of the early 19th century to remain operational along its original line with most of its structures intact.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1221

The Rideau Canal is the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America. The 19th century canal runs for 202 km from Ottawa, Canada's capital, to Kingston on Lake Ontario. The canal's initial purpose was military, later it opened up the area for settlement and commerce. The canal was completed in 1832.

The 202 kilometres (125 miles) of the Rideau Canal incorporate sections of the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers, as well as several lakes, including the Lower, Upper and Big Rideau lakes. About 19 kilometres (12 miles) of the route is man-made. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/rideaucanal.html

Old Town Lunenburg

Lunenburg is the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America. Established in 1753, it has retained its original layout and overall appearance, based on a rectangular grid pattern drawn up in the home country. The inhabitants have managed to safeguard the city's identity throughout the centuries by preserving the wooden architecture of the houses, some of which date from the 18th century.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/741

Old Town Lunenburg, founded in 1753, is the best remaining example of planned British colonial settlement in North America. It was developed as a model town, with a rigid grid and wooden houses. The town grew into an important seaport and shipbuilding centre.

Lunenburg was named in honour of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, (George August of Hanover) who was also the ruler of Brunswick-Lunenburg. During the French and Indian War, several small forts which ringed the town were garrisoned by British regulars as well as by provincial troops from Massachusetts. These forts were erected to protect the town from raids by French warships and from attacks by the local Indians. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/lunenburg.html

Miguasha National Park

The palaeontological site of Miguasha National Park, in south-eastern Quebec on the southern coast of the Gaspé peninsula, is considered to be the world's most outstanding illustration of the Devonian Period known as the 'Age of Fishes'. Dating from 370 million years ago, the Upper Devonian Escuminac Formation represented here contains five of the six fossil fish groups associated with this period. Its significance stems from the discovery there of the highest number and best-preserved fossil specimens of the lobe-finned fishes that gave rise to the first four-legged, air-breathing terrestrial vertebrates – the tetrapods.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/686

Miguasha National Park is considered to be the world's greatest palaeontological record of fossils from the Devonian Period, known as the 'Age of Fishes'. Five of the six main fossil fish groups from this period (dating from 370 million years) can be found here. A great quantity of some of the best-preserved fossil specimens of lobe-finned fish, ancestors to the tetrapods (believed to be the first four-legged air-breathing terrestrial vertebrates), were found here.

These coastal cliffs are made up of grey sedimentary rock (composed of alternating layers of sandstone and shale) which are 350-375 million years old. The area supports mainly birch, aspen and fir forests. Some of the fish, fauna and spore fossils found at Miguasha are rare and ancient species. For example, Spermasposita is thought to be one of the oldest flowering plant species on earth.

The fossil site was first discovered in 1842, by Abraham Gesner (1797-1864), a geologist and medical doctor, and a pioneer in the petroleum industry. To date, over 5,000 fossils from this one site have been identified and categorized. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/miguasha.html

Landscape of Grand Pré

Situated in the southern Minas Basin of Nova Scotia, the Grand Pré marshland and archaeological sites constitute a cultural landscape bearing testimony to the development of agricultural farmland using dykes and the aboiteau wooden sluice system, started by the Acadians in the 17th century and further developed and maintained by the Planters and present-day inhabitants. Over 1,300 ha, the cultural landscape encompasses a large expanse of polder farmland and archaeological elements of the towns of Grand Pré and Hortonville, which were built by the Acadians and their successors. The landscape is an exceptional example of the adaptation of the first European settlers to the conditions of the North American Atlantic coast. The site – marked by one of the most extreme tidal ranges in the world, averaging 11.6 m – is also inscribed as a memorial to Acadian way of life and deportation, which started in 1755, known as the Grand Dérangement.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1404

The Landscape of Grand Pré is a polder created for farmland by the Acadian community. Originally a Marshland inhabited by native Mi’kmaq people, the reclamation of the land was carried out in stages in the 17th and 18th century.

It is considered the best example of a historic polder in North America. It is still a living Cultural landscape of farming.

Grand Pré is also the place of memory for the Acadian diaspora. These descendants of the 17th-century French colonists were deported from here in 1755 by the British colonial officers. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/grandpre.html

Historic District of Old Québec

Québec was founded by the French explorer Champlain in the early 17th century. It is the only North American city to have preserved its ramparts, together with the numerous bastions, gates and defensive works which still surround Old Québec. The Upper Town, built on the cliff, has remained the religious and administrative centre, with its churches, convents and other monuments like the Dauphine Redoubt, the Citadel and Château Frontenac. Together with the Lower Town and its ancient districts, it forms an urban ensemble which is one of the best examples of a fortified colonial city.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/300

The Historic District of Québec is one of the oldest settlements in Canada, and the first to have been founded with the explicit goal of receiving permanent settlement and not as a commercial outpost. It was founded by Samuel de Champlain on 3 July 1608 at the site of a long abandoned St. Lawrence Iroquoian settlement called Stadacona. 

The Historic District of Québec was designated a WHS because it is the most complete fortified colonial town left in North America, and because as the capital of New France it marks a stage in the modern development of this continent.

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/quebec.html

Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks

The contiguous national parks of Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho, as well as the Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine and Hamber provincial parks, studded with mountain peaks, glaciers, lakes, waterfalls, canyons and limestone caves, form a striking mountain landscape. The Burgess Shale fossil site, well known for its fossil remains of soft-bodied marine animals, is also found there.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/304

The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parksform a striking mountain landscape, that includes a full range of glaciation features and harbours the renowned Burgess Shale fossil site. Its highest peak is Mount Robson at 3,954 m. 

The parks are aligned along the Continental Divide, separating the drainage basins of the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Wildlife includes 56 species of mammals, 280 species of birds and 8 species of amphibians and reptiles.

The designated area consists of four national parks: Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho. And three provincial parks are included: Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine and Hamber. The parks are all contiguous. Banff National Park was already established in 1885, then only covering a small area around the hot springs (now known as "Cave & Basin National Historic Site"). 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/canadianrockymountain.html