Canon Ridge is one of three neighbourhoods within the Hermitage plan area.

In 1875, Canon William Newton, an Anglican minister who Canon Ridge is named after, arrived in the Edmonton settlement. He built his first church, a home, and a hospital in an area he called the Hermitage. The Hermitage was located about ten kilometres from Fort Edmonton, on the south side of a ravine overlooking the north Saskatchewan River Valley to the east. The Reverend Newton remained there for more than 25 years.

For many years after settlement, the Hermitage remained an agricultural area. During that time, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway line formalized the area’s southern boundary along the railroad right-of-way. In 1960, the area’s two cattle farms were sold to a land development firm, and one year later, the Hermitage was annexed to the City of Edmonton.

Land development was held up during the 1960s while government officials and developers addressed concerns about residential development too near the industrial plants in the vicinity. By 1970 these concerns were resolved, and Canon Ridge was included within the Hermitage Outline Plan area.

Canon Ridge was the last of the three Hermitage neighbourhoods to begin residential development. Although the plan of subdivision was approved in 1977 and some building occurred prior to the end of the decade, most single-detached housing units and all multiple units were built after 1980. Development has been continuing in this neighbourhood since the 1980s, and as of 2008, some multi-family dwellings and commercial parcels had yet to be developed.

A public open recreation space is located at the centre of the neighbourhood. Linkage to other Hermitage neighbourhoods on the west side of Canon Ridge is provided by collector roads and a system of bicycle and pedestrian pathways. The neighbourhood is split by Hermitage Road and Hooke Road, which serve as collectors for curvilinear and cul-de-sac interior residential streets.

Victoria Trail, located on the west boundary of Canon Ridge, was named after two trails that ran parallel to the North Saskatchewan River from the earliest days of the Edmonton settlement until 1864, when the trail followed the river northeast to the Methodist mission at Victoria.