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If you missed the leaders’ debate on the economy last week — and really, who would pass on that kind of excitement? — perhaps you were wondering what they talked about. Maybe taxes, or deficits, or the need to improve Canadian productivity in the face of an aging population?

Well, yeah, they did, but who cares about any of that? The only thing anyone wanted to talk about afterward were two words Stephen Harper said in the course of the debate. Two words, out of roughly 20,000 spoken.

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Those two words, of course, were “old stock.” The Conservative leader was making the point that his contentious policy with regard to health care for refugee applicants — failed claimants are not eligible for the supplemental benefits and prescription drugs that refugees generally are — far from being anti-refugee or anti-immigrant, as it is often portrayed, is supported by “new Canadians” themselves.

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That could well be true. The policy may be unduly harsh (it applies also to claimants from countries considered “safe”), but recent immigrants are often among the most supportive of measures to deter those they consider queue-jumpers. But Harper didn’t leave it at that. “We do not offer them a better health-care plan than the ordinary Canadian can receive. I think that is something that most new” — and here the Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau started talking over him — “and existing and, and old stock Canadians agree with.” The debate continued, without either of the other leaders remarking on it at any point.