Rosbif. Well, where do I start? Unfortunately I don't think there's much hope here, but let me give it a try. First of all, it's not AC that gets its way with the government, rather it's the other way around. But since you're not an AC employee, I can understand your ignorance. All you have to do is look back at the forced merger with Canadian, and how Transport Canada is able to keep many inspectors employed to keep an eye on Big Red and let's not forget the Air Canada Act which unfairly restricts AC the way no other company is subjected to anywhere else in the world.
On the question of sub-contracting, you should know that this is a very normal and standard practice in this business. Zoom airlines has subcontracted a UK company to do some of its flying. It was really nice to see a UK registered airplane on our soil doing our flying. But then again Skyservice goes over to the UK and "takes jobs away from them", doing some of their flying. Canadian operators have a long history of flying overseas contracts, ie Natioair, Clubair, Skyservice etc etc. Air Canada pilots were not very amused when the company and our union failed to keep the cargo flying in-house. Suffice it to say that contract will soon be over and AC pilots will be doing that flying in the very near future. But again, it is a very normal practice and I honestly don't think that one foreign MD-11 will have a great impact on your future. I don't know if I have succeeded in showing you a bit of reality, but let me say that I do understand your frustration.