Canepa was a leading member of the
Association for the Advancement of Civil Rights. He was a candidate for election for the first time in the
1972 elections, winning a seat (the AACR won the majority by obtaining eight out of fifteen seats, with
Joshua Hassan as Chief Minister) and thus becoming Minister for Labour and Social Security. During his time in this ministry, he led a wide-ranging review of the
social security system. He later served in government as Minister for Economic Development and Trade, a ministry he held until he succeeded Hassan as Chief Minister. During Hassan's last term in government Canepa also served as Deputy Chief Minister. He was perhaps Hassan's closest political colleague and became his right-hand man at meetings in London with British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher over the
Dockyard Agreement and also accompanied him as his Deputy to meetings leading up to the
Brussels Agreement in the early eighties.
Chief Minister of Gibraltar Hassan resigned without completing his term as Chief Minister in 1987 after an
agreement on the shared use of
Gibraltar Airport was signed by Spain and the United Kingdom, citing personal reasons. Being Deputy at the time, Canepa succeeded him as Chief Minister and leader of the AACR. However, Canepa lost the
1988 elections to
Joe Bossano of the
Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party (GSLP), with Canepa obtaining 4,422 votes, while Bossano polled 8,128 votes. Canepa then become
Leader of the Opposition until he announced his resignation just prior to the
1992 election. Canepa also announced his resignation as leader of the AACR and his retirement from politics altogether. The AACR disbanded shortly after.
Later work Since his official retirement from politics, Canepa has assisted successive Governments of Gibraltar as a consultant, advising them by means of his experience and expertise on
legislative and
constitutional matters. He served in
Peter Caruana's Committee on Foreign Affairs, supporting the Chief Minister in the lobbying campaign and subsequent
referendum which led to the derailing of the
joint sovereignty proposals in 2002, and later in the Constitutional Reform Group which led to
Gibraltar's current constitution. For the last fifteen years he has worked in the Legislative Unit, the prime function of which is to scrutinise all European Union documents and determine how they might affect Gibraltar. In October 2012, Canepa was appointed the
Speaker of the Gibraltar Parliament and was the speaker up until
2019 General election. ==Mayor of Gibraltar==