I agree with most of this. I feel Edmonton is already fairly well served domestically, so I feel the big expansion in domestic service, particularly to the east is an effort to respond to or put newer competition out of business. Hopefully it is the former and not the latter, which would ultimately be anti competitive.
Parts of this do not make sense, such as the weak service to Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie. If you are going to expand service to various cities to east, then you should also want or need more people from there to connect through Edmonton. Minneapolis probably needs more service too. Westjet seems to be more positive about Edmonton at the moment, but they still seem to be holding back on transborder a bit. I wonder if again they are doing the minimum to try keep another airline out.