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Thanks for the feedback gentlemen
I will quiz the fellow again.
crutchfield does not ship to Canada

Magnetic size is usually a reflection of wattage. So, too big a magnet without enough wattage output from the radio amplifier to drive it, and it's going to sound very weak. Also, stock speakers with the small magnets are typically much shallower. So make sure whatever you buy isn't too deep to mount in the stock location.

PartsExpress sells GRS speakers, which are very inexpensive and marketed as lower-power, shallower replacements for stock car speakers.

When I did my '54 radio, since I had a modern conversion board installed that outputs stereo sound and higher wattage, I went with a dual-voice-coil (stereo) 6x9 speaker to replace the stock mono (single-voice-coil) 6x9 speaker, as there is only room for a single speaker.

Thanks BigKev, hadn’t found them when looking.
They had a Canadian distributor which helps
Space is not an issue as it goes under the package tray in the rear

A large,strong field magnet is an advantage, if it will fit in the space available.The voice coil impedance, measured in ohms, is important. The radio doesn't "know" anything about the magnet, but it is directly connected to the voice coil. Pre-WWII radios often have an electromagnet for a field, and these need to be matched to the radio, since the field magnet coil is part of the radio's plate circuit.
Most car radios of the 1950s had fairly powerful audio amps, with 8 to 12 watts probably being common. Impedance varied from one maker to another.