LordZell, carriers are expensive resource hogs and if I were a nation like yours, land based aircraft would be far cheaper and have far better coverage due to being able to position bases anywhere there is flat land.
Also, having expensive warships like battleships and carriers in a close in location like the great lakes (close compared to the Atlantic or pacific) Would make your fleet easy to spot and be sunk depending on who is fighting you and with what.
It'd be like pearl harbor all over again except unlike then, your enemy would destroy your carriers. That'd be a horrific, horrendously disastrous loss. Hell, in modern America, losing one of our carriers would be a huge HUGE blow!
Not saying you shouldn't have carriers because its not my place but I was just curious as to why. That's all.