Norm,
As much as I loathe sponsons, this is a boat that should be restored with them. There are not too many decent White sponson canoes around....If the idea is to get this boat to massaged into a sponson-less White I'd suggest that you start with one.
My rule of thumb for sponsons is unless the boat is one that has unique interest or value with them, pull them off and either put them in the loft in the barn or burn them.... but not on this one.
Of course it's yours to do with as you please, but there are folks that would love to have this as is.
Mike