Born in New York City, he studied at St. Francis Xavier High School, before entering the Society of Jesus in 1898.

He returned to the United States in 1925, and was an administrator and teacher at Jesuit schools in Washington, D.C., New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Upon the end of his term four years later, he returned to St. Peter's High School, and he died in Jersey City in 1951.

Canning became an administrator at St. Isaac Jogues Novitiate in Wernersville, Pennsylvania for two-and-a-half years, before transferring to St. Francis Xavier High School in February 1934.

[2] Following the end of his presidency, he returned to St. Peter's High School in Jersey City, where he became spiritual director for the Jesuit community there.

His funeral was held on March 26, and was attended by Thomas J. Murry, the president of Loyola College, on behalf of the school.