Thank you, you now finally admit that the Government is openly protecting Air Canada.
This my friend is called protectionism!
Not only does this NOT conform to a free market economy concept, in many parts of the developed world (eg the WHOLE of Europe), this is deemed illegal. Perhaps the EU should suspend AC's overfly rights in view of unfair competition where a flag carrier is being propped up by its government where it would otherwise fail!!
Think about it. You guys cry foul of 'unfair playing fields' in the ME (no hard evidence of which you can ACTUALLY present) while all the time AC seems to be openly getting away with it! BA and many others would be well within their rights to cry foul at AC, but no they are too busy getting on with the business of running an Airline. Perhaps if AC did the same instead of running to daddy the whole time, we wouldn't be having this discussion??