I grew up on Lake Erie. I never canoed on it, but I had a small sailboat (Thistle) that I raced with and sometimes I rented a row boat and rowed a 1/2 mile of shore to fish. I had one incident ( I didn't check the weather) when I was sailing where a storm came up fast, the wave were 10 feet high in minutes, but I had the wind at my back and I headed up a river to safety.
My advise is just check the weather, if the wind is over 15 mph the Lake kicks up. Generally it is fairly calm in the morning and in the evening. Erie's water is warmer than the other Great Lakes, it gets up to the mid seventies in early August. I think if you take your time, follow the weather, plan multiple places to put in, and listen to the suggestions on the forum it would be fun long term goal. Erie, although you hear about algae, is much much cleaner then when I Iived there.