John Marshall wrote:
.... Trouble is I live on the west coast. It would be much cheaper to get Western Red Cedar, rather than something which grows on the other side of the continent. Would I be fine with Western Red Cedar? What about Alaska Yellow Cedar? What about Spruce?
Your "trouble" is what most of us builders dream of!!

Being a West Coast builder, you have access to some of the best of the best. Canoe & kayak builders in the rest of the world would give their left arm to have access to quality inexpensive WRC. Having said that, many builders make do with whatever wood is available locally and as a result boats have been successfully built from a vast array of woods, though there are pros & cons to each. A wood which is denser & stronger can often be milled thinner without a strength penalty. In fact, I would recommend looking into that since it's to be a small canoe, for a small person, why not scale down the thickness of the strips a bit too? Consider using 3/16" WRC strips rather than the standard 1/4".
I used 80% WRC and 20% Alaskan Yellow Cedar in my kayak and was suprised at how different these woods are, not just in colour but also texture, workability and smell (it's actually a cyprus I found out later). Maybe it was the particular sample of the wood I had to work with but the AYC was easier to plane and work with than was WRC, being slightly denser and of more even grain. The yellow-white colour is great for accents, providing good contrast compared the dark WRC I had on the rest of my boat.
Cheers,
Bryan