His paternal ancestors were colonists from Zrmanja, Gračac in Lika (in modern Croatia).

[1] He was raised in a family of teachers, and went to the general and musical high school (flute) in Novi Sad, graduated from the University of Novi Sad Faculty of Economics at Subotica and after that specialized in marketing and computer networks at the Executive Training Center in Brdo pri Kranju in 1989.

[1] Čanak is the co-founder and leader of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV, est.

In Spring 2009 he took part in regional edition of Big Brother reality show, Veliki Brat VIP All Stars.

[4] In September 2022, Čanak announced that he would step down as president of LSV at the party conference in November 2022.