I am not a tech, but I can offer a few comments.

Heated seats, heated mirrors, and possibly headlight wipers (the climate or winter package) are standard equipment. Your car may also have TRACS traction control (using the ABS/front brakes to control wheelspin).

The car should meet US EPA emission standards, but possibly not California, New York, etc. Power and torque will be the same. While Canadian emissions standards were traditionally lower, most cars sold here are US spec. Keep in mind that the U.S. market is literally 10 times larger than ours.

Our Canadian Motor Vehicles Safety Standards (CMVSS) are virtually the same as the U.S. FMVSS. Major differences: Canadian federal standards require 5 mph bumpers (US went to 2.5 mph bumpers years ago) and daytime running lights. (Ironically, there does not seem to be a prohibition on disabling DRLs in Ontario because our provincial Highway Traffic Act does not require them. They are often disabled on police cars.)

The most significant differences with Canadian Volvos:

- mid '90s 850GLEs (the base model) have a 10 valve engine with similar torque to the 20 valve, but only about 138 hp. This engine was more common in Europe. I would expect your car to have the 168 hp 20 valve unit.
- the first Cross Country was the Canadian market 850 XC. It had the low pressure turbo with a five speed manual only. 1997 850 AWD wagons (non-XC) had the same drivetrain.
- the T5 engines have been available with manual transmissions in Canada right from the beginning.
- as already noted, the winter package is standard equipment, not an option.

Your speedometer head was probably changed. Sometime in the 1980s, Volvo started using speedometers without mph markings for the Canadian market in an attempt to discourage "private" exports to the US. The speedometer in my car reads in km/h only; my wife is always asking me for speed checks when she is driving when we are travelling in the US!