My impression from reading the article was that the mayor made that assumption. The writer has been with the Canadian Press for over 16 years and I'm quite sure he knows the difference. Also, CTV may not have posted the full article, not that it matters. (IMO, that is a huge problem when mainstream media copy and paste articles from other sources and then edit for space or content).

I also agree with Stranger that there are likely other elements at play that led AC to choose YUL as the home for the "new" AC 5/6. And assuming the route continues for a while, and Americans and others connect, it should be nice for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.