You are mistaken my friend. AC mainline flies a number of CRJ's due to a scope clause. Please check the airlines spec sheet on this site. While your at it check out the first two years pay, and please don't lecture me about paying your dues when first hired; that's what you did to get to a mainline carrier in the first place.
AC is getting 777's and 787's, finally, because they desperatelty need to replace a seriously run down fleet. They have pulled international runs lately (to India for example), and the new planes will be doing things like YVR-SYD direct, which they currently do through HNL with B767's. I flew on one a while back and it had a Canadian Airlines interior. They pulled a number out of the dessert as I understand it as they seriously misjudged their requirements.
I don't mean to burst your AC bubble, but they haven't been a real flash airline for a long time now. They lost money last year with good load factors and cheap labour, something the North American mainline carriers are good at. Look at the way Milton sells off assets, reworks shares, screws with employees. I'd be very carefull about heading in to that company at the moment.
That all said I do agree that long haul flying is great, if you are working for a stable airline with good pay (not navajo pay for the first two years) and reasonable labour relations; I just don't think that AC is in that league just yet.
And as for the 'big red maple leaf baby', and the reference to Canadian. Canadian was going to buy AC, but Milton couldn't keep it in his pants and bid a stupid price so poor old him wouldn't be the one to get bought out. The end result of that was a merged, bankrupt airline with a nightmare of a pilot seniority issue. People committed suicide over it. People lost their homes. After that the Canadian gov't looked to none other than Westjet to save the day, which their employees thanked the gods they refused to do. So now a whole bundle of people hold worthless stock while Milton and his buddies at GECAS make out like bandits.
As for the N American market growth, in particular that of WJ. . . actually forget it, apparently you haven't been paying much attention while south of the border. You might want to check out the wages and QOL at Southwest, compare it to your mainline carriers, and take a wild guess at what the Canadian market will look like in 5-10 years.
My rant for the day.