For an infant seat, I highly recommend the graco safe seat 1. If you watch for sales at Sears, you can get it for pretty much the same price as a snugride. It is also carried by ToysRUs, although I've never seen their's significantly on sale. It has the same 32" and 30lb weight limit in Canada as it does in the US.
The other infant carriers you'll find in Canada are the safety 1st designer 22 seats in various patterns and names, evenflo aura, evenflo embrace, graco snugride, cosco arriva and peg perego along with the grace safeseat 1.
What kind of car does g-ma drive? The Radian does take up quite a bit of space when installed rf'ing - if g-ma usually drives alone or if a passenger could sit in the backseat, then it wouldn't be a big deal. The other thing would be making sure that it's compatible with her car. If g-ma has LATCH, then it's usually no problem. The Radian now goes to 65lbs in Canada, although there are still some on store shelves with the 48lb weight limit. We have the Marathon in Canada as well and it still has the 48lb weight limit - no word yet as to if britax plans to raise the weight limit or not. The marathon here sells for $299 and the radian ranges in price from $199 at canadian tire to more depending on where you buy and if you get the premier which has the extra cushions. Those are my picks for convertible car seats, because they're the best value for money and will last most kids until booster age. The Radian has the highest top slots of any seat on the Canadian market, and the Marathon is tied with the Apex.
The SS1 will fit so many babies past age 1, that mom may just want to get a 2nd base for g-ma's car.
I'd recommend avoiding the Bay just because their prices are more expensive and I've never seen any really good sales there. TRU has a good selection and sometimes has good sales. I've never seen the SS1 on sale by itself - although if she's looking for a travel system I have seen the travel system with the SS1 on for a good deal.
Sears also has a good selection of infant seats. The thing with Sears is that you'll want to buy when the car seats are on sale - which is quite often. Sears will also often have super saturday where the first "x" number of people through the door get a coupon for $20 off their purchase. This is how we got our $190 SS1 for $140.
Anyways, that would be my recommendation - if the space issue in g-ma's car is ok, and the radian will install well, it's a great option to get for g-ma's car. We also have the Scenera here - although it sells for $99, sometimes on sale for less.. the lowest I've seen it is $80. It could be a good option for g-ma's car, it really depends on how often g-ma is going to be transporting the baby.
We have a ton of the 3-in-1 seats here under various names, and they take up a good half of most car-seat convertible sections around my area anyways. For the price of the 3-in-1, she can buy a Radian that will last a long time, so I'd direct her away from the 3-in-1's just for that reason alone. The evenflo Titan and Triumph are the same here as they are in the US. Nice seats, but short shell and outgrown by height long before 40lbs.
So for a long lasting convertible - either the Radian or Marathon are pretty much the only choices. By the time you buy one of the smaller convertibles and then also buy a combination seat, you'll have spent as much money as you would've on the radian, so in the long run the radian is worth it. There are some baby boutiques in the Vancouver area that I'm sure sell the Radian. I'd have her look in the phone book and call a few that are relatively close to her and she'll probably find one. I think TJ's kids might have a store in that area... And I know for sure that they have recent DOM on their radians and they've been restickered to 65lbs. So that may be the way she wants to go.
Hope that helps some.
eta: The maximum rf'ing weight limit on all currently available CDN seats is 30lbs.
