I always told my wife that if she turned around and rode topless I'd do the paddling. I guess years of experience paddling two people in a small canoe put a little power into my stroke - and I reach deep too... I mean I like long paddles.

With all do respect even a weak bow paddler is a great help if you are an accomplished sternman, and her (his) added power is always nice going into a wind. You simply rotate your paddle to balance the combined forces of wind, wave, bow paddler and the thrust of your own paddle. As long as the bow person pulls pretty much straight back it works.

An aside - we took out our 16 footer which is pretty heavy and beamy and took a friend on her first canoe ride. She nearly swamped us right out of the shore. I wouldn't let her paddle and my wife and I were both on extreme balance mode just to stay upright in the water. I stayed really close to the shore so we could walk it if we flipped, and after about ten minutes she got enough canoe balance that we paddled out into the lake and she even paddled a bit.

I had a canoe sink right out from under me in class 4 water, and it was crushed by a sweeper log, while I lept and practiced walking (running) on water to the shore... Other than that I've never swamped a canoe, but once I was in it when my wife decided to step on the gunwal as she got out.
Jim