Festival in 2009. The Vampire Diaries series was picked up three weeks after she completed work on the film. Canning co-starred on The Vampire Diaries as Jenna Sommers, the aunt and guardian of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), and her younger brother Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen). Canning was younger or the same age as her fellow cast members who played high school students. Makeup artists and the wardrobe team worked to make her look older. Canning also downplayed her Canadian accent for the role. Matthew Davis played her character's love interest, Alaric. Canning appeared on the second season of The Vampire Diaries from 2010–2011, until her character was killed in the episode "The Sun Also Rises". Canning is interested in writing and directing. As of September 2010, she was co-writing a love story set in the Western time period. In 2011, she worked on a short film noir, titled Corvus, and shot the Lifetime network film, Hunt for the I-5 Killer, in Vancouver. She filmed the Hallmark Movie Channel Western, Hannah's Law, in Calgary, Alberta in late 2011, starring alongside Greyston Holt. Canning appeared in I Think I Do, which began filming in January 2012 in Edmonton. She starred as Audrey, an event planner who runs a business alongside her two sisters (Mia Kirschner and Jenny Cooper). The romantic comedy aired in 2013 on the W and Lifetime networks. She filmed the independent romantic comedy, The Right Kind of Wrong, in Banff, Alberta in late 2012, starring alongside Ryan Kwanten and Catherine O'Hara, directed by Jeremiah Chechik. Canning starred in the 2012–2013 Space channel television series Primeval: New World, a Canadian spin-off of the British sci-fi series Primeval. She played predator control expert Dylan Weir, a member of a dinosaur hunting team; the series was filmed in Vancouver. Canning also starred in 2012 with Aaron Ashmore in the dark romantic comedy, I Put a Hit on You. In 2013, she joined the cast of the psychological drama film, Eadweard, starring Michael Eklund. She played Flora, the wife of 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Canning played general surgeon Mel Conner in the Global medical drama, Remedy, co-starring Sarah Allen, Dillon Casey, and Enrico Colantoni. The television series was in production in Toronto from October 2013–January 2014. Broadcast company Shaw Media renewed the series for a second 10-episode season. Canning won the 2014 UBCP/ACTRA best actor and the 2015 Leo Award for Best Lead