The Conservative government is canvassing opposition parties to see if they would support fixed dates for federal elections, media reports say.

Government House leader Rob Nicholson raised the issue Tuesday with House leaders from the Liberals, Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party, The Globe and Mail quoted parliamentary sources as saying.

During the last election campaign, the Tories promised legislation modelled on B.C. and Ontario laws which require fixed election dates every four years.

The pledge was made following criticism that former Liberal prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin called early elections when they thought they had the best chance of winning.

"We need sweeping reforms to show Canadians that their national government will not tolerate corruption in the future," Harper said back in December.

Martin launched the 2004 election campaign shortly after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives, before the new party could even hold a policy convention.

And Chretien twice called elections just three-and-a-half years into his five-year mandates.

CTV Question Period co-host Jane Taber described the move as "a way of appeasing" the NDP before the Tories bring down their first budget on Tuesday.

"They want to keep the NDP close. Even though they only have 29 seats, those are votes that they do need and of course it drives a wedge between the Liberals and the NDP," Taber told Canada AM Thursday.

"The NDP like fixed election dates and it also gets away from what Mr Chretien did when he was prime minister."

NDP House Leader Libby Davies said her caucus agreed Wednesday to support the proposed bill, stopping what she called the abuses of Chretien.

"He (Chretien) was toying with the idea and calling people to the polls when he didn't need to, when it suited the Liberals to do so," she told The Globe.

Genevieve Breton, a spokeswoman for Rob Nicholson, would not comment on the House leaders meeting.

"I'm not going to speculate on what goes on in the House leaders meeting, but a fixed elections law is something we're definitely looking at," she told The Globe.

A law setting fixed election dates is unlikely to have an effect on minority governments, given their traditionally short life span.

However, it would tie the hands of the next prime minister who obtains a majority.