Ahhh, bringing a knife to a gunfight again F10. Firstly, I have had several consultations with a top immigration lawyer over the past few years, the purpose of which was to obtain my Green Card (so, considering the utter inept way that CX has handled the basings from the start, yes, I probably DO know more than they do...). Second, you just don't see to get the main point to you? That is that because CX has arbitrarily CHANGED the criteria for staffing a base, the main point NOW being that you must have legal residence status, the value of each nations basing slots is 10 fold what it used to be, because the ONLY base we can bid on is the one in our own country. Most of the Canadians based in the US commute anyway. Why should they be allowed to not only lock up the slots for many many years, but at the same time not even live in the country. Imagine if a large percentage of the Canadian base was staffed by Americans, and they all lived back in the US, but only commuted into work....meanwhile hundreds of Canadians and their families are stuck in HK because they CAN'T bid onto their own base?? I'm sure that would seem fair huh...? If you can't see that the new base rules require a wholesale rebidding effort, instead of this singular attempt to favor a particular subset of pilots, and consequently disadvantaging many other pilots, then you really are drinking the koolaid. As for the Aus/NZ example, I clearly explained why it is a different case in an earlier thread....but no surprise, you didn't understand that either. I can't be bothered to continue this debate further, because if you can't see the obvious you aren't worth arguing with.
ps. your last comment: they weren't 'there' legally earlier. They were moving in and out of the US as a subterfuge......and it worked for many years. Now the game is over.....but why recognise the truth eh?