I The reason these types of heaters are hard to find in Canada is that the safety codes don't allow them. There are even a few states in the US that don't allow them ( see the Mr. Heater website ).
Your life will be in your hands. With no vent or flue pipe the combustion gases from the heater end up in the room/house with you. If the carbon monoxide levels get too high then you die. Here is a CBC story about recent deaths:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/carbon-monoxide-poisoning-5-things-to-know...
Here's what the US dept of Energy has to say about portable heaters:
http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/portable-heaters
I hope that this is helpful.
Kevin
I would like to buy a Mr. Heater 30,000 BTU Vent-Free Heater (as recommended in the "what should I do" guide), but it appears that this model isn't available in Canada. I see that there is a Procom model that looks very similar, but is a wall mounted unit, and I would like to be portable.
Does anyone have any recommendations for buying something similar to the Mr. Heater model in Canada?