Post-debate chatter is usually far more entertaining than the leaders’ debate itself.

Today twitter has replaced the water cooler as the go to audience barometer. The old media; talk shows, columnists and headline writers, search for the words the audience picked up on and turn up the sound amplifying it all. I mean we all need something to write about, right?

Three words last night from Conservative leader Stephen Harper had nothing to do with the economy but did spike the twitter kool-aid. It came when the Syrian refugee crisis hijacked the debate for a few minutes. Harper found himself defending taking away health coverage from what he called “bogus refugees.” Harper said that “is something new and old stock Canadians can agree with.” With that Canadians asked what is an “old stock Canadian”? Justin Trudeau’s top aide, Gerald Butts, went straight to his twitter handle with this, “If you think ‘old stock Canadians’ just popped out of Harper's mouth, you haven't been paying attention to the last 10 years.” And the debate over what it means to say, be or not be of “old stock Canadian” took off. Did Harper intentionally use the phrase to cater to his Conservative base? Was it an attack on all new Canadians? Create the hashtags!

This morning, as the leaders met with the media after their morning photo ops, the phrase was top of mind for the reporters. Harper was asked what he meant when he used the phrase. Harper chose not to repeat it but held to his position that those refugees here illegally should not get federal health care benefits. “There is no reason why — no reason why — we should give a special health-care plan, better than received by ordinary Canadians, to people who are clearly not legitimate refugees and who have been judged as such," he said.

He insisted Canadians are behind him on the issue. "And I believe, in fact I know, I know that that is a position that is supported widely throughout the Canadian population. It's supported by Canadians who are themselves immigrants, it's supported by the rest of us — by Canadians who have been the descendants of immigrants for one or more generations."

At a noon rally in Montreal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau took offense at the phrase "Mr. Harper is yet again highlighting that he doesn't believe that a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian, and that there are different categories of Canadian," he said.

And if that wasn’t enough Trudeau then added, "The fact that he is once again choosing to divide Canadians and to use fear in his politics simply isn't worthy of a prime minister of Canada."

Trudeau didn’t need to be asked to repeat his comment in French making sure Quebec reporters had the same quotes for their sound bites for the day.

NDP leader Tom Mulcair’s first stop of the day was in Regina. As the reporters asked their questions Mulcair wasn’t being asked about the phrase. So he turned a question on its head to get the chance to take his poke at Harper’s choice of words calling it “very divisive language.” He too wanted to go further, “I think we're all Canadians and I don't like dividing people into categories like that,” he said.

Did Harper use “old stock Canadians” on purpose? Going back to the twitter #oldstockcanadian finds a long stream of comment and pictures. Does it all mean anything? One tweet decided that “the only thing Canadians will remember about last night’s debate is old stock Canadians.” If true the Globe and Mail decision to hold a single topic debate on the economy will have proven to be a failure.

Finally it’s worth noting a couple of polls in Justin Trudeau’s riding, Papineau. Yesterday a CROP poll, commissioned by the NDP, showed the NDP candidate, Anne Legace Dowson, eleven points ahead of Trudeau. This afternoon Mainstream released its poll on the riding and it puts Trudeau ahead. “Among decided and leaning voters, Trudeau leads 41% to 36% for the NDP candidate Legacé Dowson. The Bloc has 12% and the Conservatives just 11%.”

With the NDP vote holding in Quebec and the Bloc vote continuing to slip seats like Papineau may well be in play for the NDP on election night.