Sounds like another story of an inconsistent GA checking ID.

As a resident of Alberta for all but one year of my life, for that one other year I was a Japanese resident that happened to be in Canada for multiple domestic hops. During those trips I flashed my expired Japanese ID where my AB license usually would have been placed in my wallet by mistake, they always let me board and it was only when I realized my mistake after 4-5 flights that I realized I could have ended up like you.

Based on my experiences (is that considered a false positive) and yours (false negative?), I don't think GAs are trained well for ID policies on domestic hop, I think we'll keep hearing stories of GAs not being well read on the rules: https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...documents.html

Fun fact, when I worked for an AB municipality I asked if I could use my employee badge as valid photo ID, since it was issued by a government authority after all. The gate agent (she seemed super nervous as if she just started the job) was scrambling for an answer before I pulled out NEXUS to her relief. What to do then?