I don't see this debate as Nationalism. I see it as the age old debate about what matters more: jumps or overall skating. The CoP is designed to reward what you do, not penalize you for things like jumps. It's ridiculous to suggest that Kevin Reynolds should beat Chan because he had 2 quads, as someone else has said. You get points for what you do. Period. And PCS does matter as much as the TES, so all those things like edge quality, speed, linking steps, balanced program, etc. add up to points. We used to hear complaints about Buttle. It's the Browning vs Stoyko debate. It's the Olympic men's final all over again. I don't save my praise in this regard just for Chan. There about a handful of male skaters around the world who really use the CoP: Chan, Daisuke, Evan, etc.
I also think the conspiracy theories are over the top. It's not hard to figure out why the home team tends to finish on the podium at home GP events. The math is simple:
1. The home team sends the most skaters. The odds are going to be higher that someone lands on the podium.
2. The home team tends to send their top skaters to their home event, while the other countries tend to send their lower ranked teams. As nicely explained to me above, this is done on purpose to make sure the top teams don't meet until the GPF and worlds. It just so happens that Canada has top ranked skaters/teams across the disciplines.
A good example of how this isn't nationalism. Alissa (although falling) had the best program of the night, and absolutely deserved to win the women's event. She also got a standing ovation from the Canadian crowd.
Well said, I don't have the patience to answer every single question asked of me so you summarize my thinking very well. Someone who constantly used the word "ridiculous" or "outrageous" because they think a certain element should be +1 instead of +2 for instance - you know they are full of BS. Unfortunately, there is a lot of those here.