 Social researcher Frank Graves, founder and current president of EKOS Research Associates Inc. described the use of the term 'old-stock Canadians' as a deliberate strategy called dog-whistle politics, a term that originated in Australian politics in the mid-1990s, which was used by John Howard in his successful political campaign under the direction of Lynton Crosby.Crosby was retained by Harper in September 2015.Graves claimed that this was a "deliberate strategy "to energize the Conservative base' and to sort them from the rest of the electorate.