Why are ActualWidth and ActualHeight 0.0 in this case?

I have a Grid inside a Canvas defined like this:

<Canvas x:Name="outerCanvas">
    <Grid Grid.Row="1" Name="cGrid" ShowGridLines="True" Width="{Binding Path=ActualWidth, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type Canvas}}}" Height="{Binding Path=ActualHeight, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type Canvas}}}">
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition />
            <ColumnDefinition/>
            <ColumnDefinition/>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition  />
            <RowDefinition />
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <Rectangle Name="rectangle1" Stroke="Black" Fill="AntiqueWhite" />
        <Rectangle Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="1" Grid.RowSpan="1" Name="rectangle2" Stroke="Black" Fill="AliceBlue" />
        <Rectangle Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="2" Grid.ColumnSpan="1" Grid.RowSpan="1" Name="rectangle3" Stroke="Black" Fill="Aqua" />
        <Rectangle Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="3" Grid.RowSpan="1" Name="rectangle4" Stroke="Black" Fill="DarkViolet" />
    </Grid>
</Canvas>

My problem is that, on the Window constructor, after InitializeComponents() either Grid.ColumnDefinitions[0].ActualWidth or "any rectangle".ActualWidth are all set to 0.0 (the same for heights). I'm not figuring out what to do to get this information. Any help?

Observations:

1. I'm not defining the outer canvas width and height but if I do, it doesn't solve my problem.
2. At runtime I can see that this Canvas/Grid occupies the entire window space, so every rectangle inside it has ActualWidths and ActualHeights
3. The grid's width/height is bound to the canvas but I tried removing this binding and my problem still persists.