Small turbo Escos are legal in the US, cars have to be older than 25yrs to be legal in the US so in a couple of years the 3dr will be legal here (not that has stopped people from bringing them in )
Canada is different, the minimum age there is 15yrs.
I'm betting that shop is Drakken. There was a guy who used to work there (one of you lot) who left and started his own business called NACS or North American Cosworth Specialist. In the end, the only thing he specialised in was taking people's money for parts he didn't have and f'd off back to the UK (or so it seems). He's left a lot of people very unhappy. Anyway back to Drakken, they don't have the best reputation either so it could be hit or miss from what I understand.