The first PNC (CNP) was founded in Havana, Cuba on 30 January 1924, by Jose G. Cabrera Díaz, a Canarian journalist who became president of the party.

In 2003, after tensions between the militants and the direction, a splinter group formed another "Partido Nacionalista Canario", known as PaNaCa, which accused PNC of betraying its nationalist reivindications.

From 2006 to 2023, the PNC participated in the Agreement of Nationalist Unity alliance with the Canarian Coalition.

As part of the alliance, the party contested elections to the parliament of Spain, the Cortes Generales.

The alliance was dissolved in 2023 and did not contest that year's election, with the PNC arguing that the CC had now "nothing of nationalism".