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In this daily feature until Election Day, the National Post captures a telling moment in time from the 2015 campaign trail

While explaining his policy on refugee health care, Stephen Harper uttered what is perhaps the only thing Canada will remember from the Sept. 17 leaders’ debate.

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“We do not offer them a better health-care plan than the ordinary Canadian can receive, and I think that’s something both new and existing and old stock Canadians agree with,” he said.

“Old stock Canadians.” Within seconds, the descriptor was seized on as definitive proof the Conservative leader was a racist, immigrant-hating bigot.

Frank Graves, president of EKOS Research, told the CBC it was a deliberate attempt by Harper to isolate Conservatives from “the rest of the electorate.”

“It creates a sense of us versus others,” he said.

Mi’kmaq elder Stephen Augustine took to As It Happens Friday to call the term “offensive and racist.”