In 1871, the Canning Road District was established under the District Roads Act 1871, covering a very wide area to the southeast of Perth. The City of Canning originated as the Municipality of Queen's Park, which was established on 1 July 1907 when the original Canning Road District was divided into two and split into the Queen's Park municipality and the Gosnells Road District. It was renamed the Queen's Park Road District on 5 November 1913. It was renamed again to become the second Canning Road District on 17 June 1921, and received a large amount of land from the abolished Jandakot Road District on 30 November 1923. On 1 July 1961, Canning Road District became the Shire of Canning under the Local Government Act 1960, which reformed all remaining road districts into shires. On 4 December 1970 it gained town status as the Town of Canning and assumed its current name when it gained city status on 10 March 1979. In 1974 the then-Town of Canning brought heritage registered Woodles Homestead to create a local Heritage museum. In late 2012, an inquiry against the Canning City Council launched by the State Government's Department of Local Government resulted in a 476-page report "pointing to widespread dysfunction, micromanagement and alleged serious governance irregularities." As a result, the State Government ordered the suspension of the Council, appointing Linton Reynolds to replace it as City Commissioner. Two years later, in mid-September 2014, it was reported that the State Government had sacked the four remaining Canning councillors, to be replaced by a panel of three new Commissioners upon the end of Commissioner Reynolds' tenure on 16 September. As part of the Department of Local Governments' plans, in which the number of local councils would have been reduced drastically, it was announced that the City of Canning would be split up and merged into neighbouring local areas, including the City of Gosnells and City of Melville. Since the failure of the state government's council merger process, the governor's order for the merger has been revoked.
Wards
The city is divided into five wards with each ward electing two councillors while the mayor is directly elected.
