It was Danny Carlton who kick-started the second-half onslaught when he opened the scoring with his ninth goal of the season two minutes after the break.
Carlton showed his goalscoring instincts with a real poacher's goal after Gary Hunter's delicate lob from the edge of the area had cannoned back off the crossbar.
Full of confidence, Carlton then began to torment the Canvey defence with his pace and it was his speed of turn which provided the Shrimps the chance to extend their lead on the hour mark.
His turn in the box was too sharp for Peter Smith who brought him down and Hunter made no mistake from the penalty spot.
There was then no stopping the front man as he teed up Garry Thompson and Lee Elam with low crosses for easy tap-ins.
Canvey, who suffered their first defeat in four games, were quite simply never in the game.
They managed to turn round level but that was due simply to some poor finishing and great defending.
The chances came thick and fast for Morecambe in the first half.
As early as the seventh minute Carlton was put through on goal by a Michael Twiss flick-on but the young striker missed the target with his final effort.
Opportunities then came at regular intervals with the best on 11 minutes.
Carlton fed Elam who looked sure to score but his shot from six yards out was well saved by the legs of Danny Potter.
Potter then did well to save instinctively from a close-range Carlton volley, while defender Dominic Sterling was the Canvey hero on more than one occasion with some superb covering tackles.
Canvey's only real effort of the half came when John Keeling cleared the crossbar with a 34th minute shot after a rare moment on the front foot.