I am using an ItemsControl where the ItemsPanel is set to Canvas (see this question for more background information). The ItemsControl is performing as I want, and it works
Button Doesn't have a "Canvas" Property, so what you are doing is is making a relative call to the hosting control, however because the item and canvas are in different Templates there is no direct link, because of this the Canvas.Left is meaningless before runtime.
hence your method can't find a left to set so loses the change.
However Setters are only implemented at runtime so
will only run after the objects have been generated and hence do have a relative relationship.
Otherwise you can use the margin which does belong to the button object but again is only interpreted at runtime