  We start a program of background independent quantum gravity in eight
dimensions. We begin by considering canonical gravity \textit{a la}
"Kaluza-Klein" in $D=d+1$ dimensions. We show that our canonical gravity
approach can be applied to the case of self-dual gravity in four dimensions.
Further, by using our previously proposed classical action of Ashtekar
self-dual gravity formalism in eight dimensions, we proceed to develop the
canonical approach in eight dimensions. Our construction considers different
SO(8) symmetry breakings. In particular, the breaking $SO(8)=S_{R}^{7}% \times
S_{L}^{7}\times G_{2}$ plays an important role in our discussion.
