Years ago, Australia had two main Airlines; Qantas and Ansett. The government decided to add competition, bringing in Virgin. 
The result was Ansett going out of business, leaving two airlines.
On the other issue; service; Air Canada is better than most carriers; I fly a lot.
The big issue at Air Canada is the shrinking seats; 777's have added 100 seats and passengers are badly squeezed in economy.
Emirates is not a fair comparison; the cost structure is vastly different due to all kinds of government favouritism.
Air Canada has extra costs due to the Canadian government charging rent for airports which it transferred to local authorities. This is unreasonable.
Air Canada also has extra costs such as translating all documents to French; technical translation is extremely expensive; no other carrier has to do this; it is an unreasonable political requirement.