We should avoid saying "canonical" -- I just peeked at the ASN.1/BER/DER spec, and there's a "canonical" encoding that is different from the "distinguished" encoding:
http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/studygroups/com17/languages/X.690-0207.pdf
(international standards committees seem to be completely incapable of adhering to the Keep It Simple, Stupid principle).