As a member of the 42nd Canadian Parliament he sponsored three private member's bills: one to promote the use of wood in federal public works projects, one to add various lakes and rivers to Navigable Waters Protection Act, and another to a Minister of Environment to respond to a Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada report.

In December 2021, he was named an inaugural member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research.

Prior to his involvement in politics, Cannings worked as a biologist specializing in birds, taught at the University of British Columbia for 17 years, wrote numerous books about birds and natural history, and was a member of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada for 8 years.

[10] At 58 years old, Cannings entered politics in 2012 seeking the British Columbia New Democratic Party nomination in Penticton.

Similar bills had previously been introduced by Claude Patry and Gérard Asselin in the 41st and 40th Parliaments, respectively.

He introduced his third private member bill, Bill C-363,[19] on September 22, 2017, as a response to the practice used by the Ministers of Environment in the 28th Canadian Ministry between 2011 and 2015 of avoiding listing species in the Species at risk Public Registry by not notifying the Governor in Council of reports received from the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

Though Bill C-363, which would require the Minister notify the Governor in Council and recommend to list a species or not, did not advance but it was adopted as a Ministry of Environment operational policy.

[20][21] In the 2019 Canadian federal election, Cannings was narrowly re-elected over the second-place Conservative, Penticton city councillor Helena Konanz.