Here is how I got mine out. I've done the spring/strut swap twice on a contour. The first time is took 11 hours because I/we could not get the struts out of the arm. The same problem you are having. The second time it took 3 hours using this trick below..hee hee
I supported the A-arm and the jack pushed the strut up just high enough to let it pop out.
To get them back in I/we dropped the subframe. I should have done that in the first place...live and learn.
