diff --git a/Changes b/Changes
index 8528cf4..45576d9 100644
--- a/Changes
+++ b/Changes
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 Revision history for Perl extension NetAddr::IP
 
+4.071 Mon Sep 30 13:41:03 PDT 2013
+	add method "canon" by request from <tom.jones@bccx.com>
+
 4.070 Thu Sep 12 12:54:22 PDT 2013
 	nth documention error fixed. thanks to Anton tobez@tobez.org
 
diff --git a/IP.pm b/IP.pm
index 6ba1863..5d01e1a 100644
--- a/IP.pm
+++ b/IP.pm
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
 
 @ISA = qw(Exporter NetAddr::IP::Lite);
 
-$VERSION = do { sprintf " %d.%03d", (q$Revision: 4.70 $ =~ /\d+/g) };
+$VERSION = do { sprintf " %d.%03d", (q$Revision: 4.71 $ =~ /\d+/g) };
 
 $rfc3021 = 0;
 
@@ -848,6 +848,20 @@
   return _compV6($addr);
 }
 
+=item C<-E<gt>canon()>
+
+Returns the address part in canonical notation as a string.  For
+ipV4, this is dotted quad, and is the same as the return value from 
+"->addr()".  For ipV6 it is as per RFC5952, and is the same as the LOWER CASE value
+returned by "->short()".
+
+=cut
+
+sub canon($) {
+  my $addr = $_[0]->addr;
+  return $_[0]->{isv6} ? lc _compV6($addr) : $addr;
+}
+
 =item C<-E<gt>full()>
 
 Returns the address part in FULL notation for
diff --git a/MANIFEST b/MANIFEST
index 2e72d4b..9753d71 100644
--- a/MANIFEST
+++ b/MANIFEST
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 Makefile.PL
 TODO
 docs/rfc1884.txt
+t/canon.t
 t/constants.t
 t/full.t
 t/full6.t
diff --git a/META.yml b/META.yml
index f1ec3e3..c2d64ed 100644
--- a/META.yml
+++ b/META.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 --- #YAML:1.0
 name:                NetAddr-IP
-version:             4.070
+version:             4.071
 abstract:            Manages IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and subnets
 license:             ~
 author:              
diff --git a/t/canon.t b/t/canon.t
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91b72c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/canon.t
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+use Test::More;
+
+my %cases =
+(
+ '127.1'           => '127.0.0.1',
+ 'DEAD:BEEF::1'	   => 'dead:beef::1',
+
+ '1234:5678:90AB:CDEF:0123:4567:890A:BCDE'
+    => '1234:5678:90ab:cdef:123:4567:890a:bcde',
+);
+
+my $tests = keys %cases;
+plan tests => 1 + $tests;
+
+SKIP: {
+    use_ok('NetAddr::IP') or skip "Failed to load NetAddr::IP", $tests;
+    for my $c (sort keys %cases)
+    {
+	my $ip = new NetAddr::IP $c;
+	my $rv = $ip->canon;
+	is($rv, $cases{$c}, "canon($c ) returns $rv");
+    }
+}