The canard design is most certainly not unstable. I have built model canards almost by accident, from scratch, from first principles. Nor can you simply remove

The canard design is most certainly not unstable. I have built model canards almost by accident, from scratch, from first principles. Nor can you simply remove the canard from a properly designed aircraft, any more than you can delete the tail from a Cessna. Take a wing shaped piece of card or balsa and attempt to fly it by itself. You will find that it rapidly pitches up and stalls, flips over on its back, and repeats the process as it flutters it the ground. You can prevent it from doing this by taping a pole sticking to the front - a pencil, perhaps - as a counterweight to the pitch-up moment. This arrangement flies, but is very difficult to trim and has a tendency to suddenly invert as soon as the angle of attack goes negative. To stabilise it, all you have to do is put a small horizontal surface on the end of the pole. You have made a canard glider. (If you actually try this, you will also need some vertical stabilisation.)