UNESCO Sites Within Canada

In the same manner as the display series on Plaza Bridge, each summer, a series of display panels are set up on the terrace below the Chateau Laurier that leads the visitor towards Major's Hill Park. This year, the theme is UNESCO sites in Canada. This refers both to World Heritage Sites and Biosphere Regions. There are 22 of the first in the country, and 19 of the other. This year, the government shone a light on some of them.

SGang Gwaay (Haida Gwaii) is off the coast of British Columbia, a traditional Haida village that has been set aside and protected.

Gros Morne National Park, in Newfoundland, is a landscape where mantle rock from deep within the earth has been pushed up to the surface in an extraordinary landscape.

In Alberta, Writing-On-Stone/ Aisinai'pi preserves the petroglyphs and pictogryphs of the Blackfoot.

The Rideau Canal marks its two hundredth year this year, and is a World Heritage Site. This photograph captures the view behind me as I was taking these shots- the terrace is visible below the Chateau at left. It is here where the Canal meets the Ottawa River at the Ottawa Locks, in a saddle between the Chateau Laurier and Parliament Hill.

Riding Mountain National Park is in Manitoba, home to a diverse ecosystem and a diverse landscape.

Dinosaur Provincial Park is in Alberta. This amazing landscape of canyons is home to one of the richest deposits of fossils on the planet.

In the Yukon, Kluane/ Wrangell- St. Elias/ Glacier Bay/ Tatshenshini-Alsek is a broad bioreserve crossing the border with Alaska, and dipping into British Columbia.

The old historic district of Quebec City is also a World Heritage Site, with its rich history and architecture.

In the Northwest Territories, Nahanni National Park is a vast landscape of the far north that most people will never see.

The Bay of Fundy is home to the world's highest tides, where at low tide the visitor can walk on the ocean floor. I have been there twice.

The Canadian Rockies are home to seven parks on either side of the Alberta and British Columbia border that make up a large World Heritage Site of some of the most spectacular scenery you will ever see.

Lunenburg is a traditional fishing and shipbuilding village founded in 1753 in Nova Scotia, known for its colourful homes.