Impressions of Canada from an Oscar winner

This Oscar winner is Denys Arcand, who won the Oscar for best foreign-language film for "The Barbarian Invasions" (2003). Another film Americans might be familiar have from Arcand is Stardom (2000) with Jessica Paré.

His next movie is debuting now in film festivals, "The Age of Ignorance."

The Q&A sessions are a fun part of film festivals for fans to get a better sense of the director and what he/she was trying to do with the film. But this Q&A session slipped into a bit of the U.S. vs. Canada. One person asked why he shot his films in Montreal. Well, he lives in Montreal and he likes shooting his films there.

Then someone asked Arcand what he liked about Canada. Arcand described Canada as a peaceful country, a country that has never really had a war. "No one attacked us like Pearl Harbor." Not even a civil war.

Arcand also noted that Canada is an equalitarian society with very few rich and a huge middle class. He said there isn't much difference in class structure.

When people ask me what I love about Canada, I find it difficult to put into words, which is sad since I am a writer. But I think it's because I get emotionally attached to my feelings. I thank Denys Arcand for putting so eloquently part of how I feel about Canada.