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Conservatives are on pace to control a majority in the Senate by 2010 as Prime Minister Stephen Harper prepares to fill all Senate vacancies before a possible defeat at the hands of an opposition coalition.

Liberals and New Democrats said the Prime Minister's announcement amounts to a shocking reversal for the leader of a party that has vowed not to appoint unelected Senators.

But Mr. Harper's office maintains the soon-to-be-appointed Tories are the party's best hope of delivering on Senate reform given the current political context.

"We remain committed to Senate reform, which means elections for senators," a government official said. "[But] as long as the Senate exists in its present form, Senate vacancies should be filled by a government that Canadians elected, not a government that Canadians rejected."

The Liberal-NDP coalition, supported by the Bloc Québécois, have not backed down from talk of ousting the Conservative government when Parliament resumes in early 2009.

The Tories want to avoid the possibility that the 105-member Senate gets filled with members opposed to Senate reform -- or with separatist leanings.

"The Liberal-NDP-Bloc coalition has indicated it plans to fill the Senate with coalition members and this includes the prospect of appointing senators who do not believe in Canadian unity," the official said.

All 18 vacancies will be filled by individuals willing to sit as Conservatives and willing to support legislation requiring Senate elections and term limits. However, the 18 Tories will not be required to commit to a specific term. They will be allowed to sit under the current rules, which allow Senators to keep their jobs until the age of 75.

"It's a bit of a shocker in a way that Mr. Harper would come and reverse himself completely on the Senate," NDP Leader Jack Layton said. "The idea of appointing partisan appointments in a rush effort prior to Christmas when he doesn't enjoy the confidence of the majority of the House is truly unprecedented."

Mr. Layton said the move reminds him of the famous quip from Tory prime minister Brian Mulroney, who embarrassed his Liberal rival John Turner with the line "you had an option, sir." Mr. Mulroney was criticizing Mr. Turner for refusing to reverse a flurry of Senate appointments made by Pierre Trudeau in his final days in office.

Conservative Senator Bert Brown, who was elected in an Alberta referendum and appointed by Mr. Harper last year, says he's disappointed he was personally not able to convince other provinces to follow Alberta's lead by electing Senate nominees.

Mr. Brown noted that with 12 more senators set to turn 75 next year and another two in 2010, the Conservatives are just months away from being able to ensure a Conservative majority in the Senate through appointments.

"I talked to [the Prime Minister Wednesday] in Ottawa and assured him I was with him, that it was a necessary evil right now to fill the vacancies so the Senate could function properly," Mr. Brown said.

"I don't think the Liberals could be trusted with the good sense to appoint Conservatives and others. I think they would have filled it with Liberals and then we'd have a one-party Senate... There'd be no second thought at all in the Senate."

Mr. Brown said the 20 existing Conservative senators are having a hard time covering all of the Senate committees because of their dwindling numbers. There are currently 58 Liberal senators, three Progressive Conservative senators and six independents.

The Prime Minister's move comes after he tried to nail down a meeting with newly minted Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff in an effort to prevent his government from being defeated over its coming budget.

Sources said Mr. Harper phoned Mr. Ignatieff within hours of the Liberal Leader's warning that the Conservatives will be defeated if the Prime Minister doesn't shelve partisan attacks or if he fails to compromise on the budget.

Mr. Harper phoned to congratulate Mr. Ignatieff on his acclamation to the party's leadership Wednesday and invited him to a get-together. A spokesperson for Mr. Ignatieff said the leader neither accepted nor declined the offer.

Mr. Ignatieff later told the CBC that Mr. Harper asked to meet about the budget and parliamentary business, and that he'd be willing to meet with the Prime Minister.

"I made it clear I don't want to get into secret negotiations or backdoor deals," Mr. Ignatieff said.

"I'm there to listen to the Prime Minister because he's the Prime Minister of Canada. And then we'll decide what we have to do from there."

Mr. Ignatieff said earlier that he was open to supporting the government if the budget is acceptable, potentially scuttling the plans of a Liberal-NDP coalition to take the reins of power. But he adopted a substantially more forceful tone than his predecessor, Stéphane Dion, maintaining that the coalition option is still viable while also criticizing the Prime Minister for raising national tensions in a fall economic statement that, among other things, proposed to remove voter subsidies from political parties.

"I am prepared to vote non-confidence in this government. And I am prepared to enter into a coalition government with our partners if that is what the Governor-General asks me to do," Mr. Ignatieff said.

"But I also made it clear to the caucus this morning that no party can have the confidence of the country if it decides to vote now against a budget it hasn't even read."

While Mr. Harper was seeking a meeting, other Conservatives criticized Mr. Ignatieff. On Tuesday, Conservative campaign manager Doug Finley sent out "emergency" fundraising letters calling Mr. Ignatieff's acclamation a "stunning and unprecedented demonstration of Liberal contempt for our democratic rights."

When asked how the government can ask for co-operation from a leader it deems illegitimate, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said it was an internal matter for the Liberals.

When the Liberals prevented the defeat of the Conservatives last spring by sitting on their hands through repeated confidence votes, the Conservatives mocked them in the House of Commons.

But Mr. MacKay said he didn't envision a repeat of those tactics.

"We're in a very different circumstance today as a country," he said. "The global economic crisis has everyone, I think, re-examining priorities."

Mr. Ignatieff was acclaimed during a caucus meeting and a consultation among party officials, defeated candidates and other Liberals. He is now considered the interim leader, and will be confirmed at the party's convention in May.

His ascension was welcomed by Liberal MPs, who suffered through a recent election in which the party posted one of its worst results in history. Mr. Ignatieff acknowledged he has much work to do to rebuild the institution, particularly in rural Canada and the West.

"I want us to reach out and hope that Western Canadians forgive and forget, to be very blunt, some of the errors that the party has made in the past."

Mr. Ignatieff took a standoffish approach to meeting Mr. Harper, first suggesting he has no plans to negotiate with the Prime Minister, but ultimately leaving the door open.

"I think that after having lost the confidence of the House, after having triggered a national crisis, after having raised tensions between groups in Canada, it's not up to me to reach out a hand. It's more up to the Prime Minister," he said.

"But I want to add something: I'm a responsible elected official, and I want to do the best for my country. I will do all that I can to get my country out of this crisis."

He also called the Prime Minister's earlier actions "divisive, spiteful and unproductive."

With reports from Brian Laghi, Campbell Clark and Jane Taber