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If you want to make money playing poker, you have to read your opponents without letting them read you.

Stephen Harper sure is hard to read, but in the game of high-stakes poker over the election debates, he seems to have misread the other players.

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On Thursday, representatives of the NDP, Liberals, Greens and Bloc agreed to do one English and one French debate to be broadcast by CTV, CBC, Global and Radio Canada, which would reach millions of Canadian TVs.

The Conservatives say they’re too busy with other debates. So far, they have agreed to debates put together by TVA, Maclean’s, the Globe and Mail and the Munk Debates. La Presse is likely next.

The problem for the Tories is that the consortium of big broadcasters controls TV bandwidth, and they are refusing to cede control to the other media organizations.

When British Prime Minister David Cameron stayed away from a similar debate recently, the British consortium went ahead without him. That didn’t help Cameron’s rival, Labour Leader Ed Miliband, because he got beat up by the leaders of smaller parties.