Let the bidding begin.

Despite objections from Canwest Global Communications CEO Leonard Asper, a majority of senior creditors have voted to push ahead with the sale of the Canwest LP newspaper division.

A steering committee of leading bankers on Wednesday said 135 lenders holding nearly 77% of Canwest LP’s secured debt and a majority of all votes backed a restructuring plan that includes the court-directed sale of Canwest’s cross-country newspaper chain.

The consent of two-thirds of senior secured debt holders was required to force a sale of Canwest LP, which went into creditor protection Jan. 8 after it defaulted on $1.5 billion in debt.

A banking consortium, led by the Bank of Nova Scotia, has already tabled a stalking-horse bid of $925 million for Canwest LP to recover what the lenders are owed, and hopes to secure more than $1 billion through an auction now underway via RBC Capital Markets.

Asper in a Jan. 2 letter to the Bank of Nova Scotia strongly criticized tipping Canwest LP into creditor protection and forcing a sale. He argued the newspaper group could be worth more after the recession.

Among possible bidders showing interest in the Canwest LP assets are Canadian pension funds, a consortium led by Citytv co-founder Jerry Grafstein, another led by National Post publisher Paul Godfrey, and Gerry Schwartz’s Onex Corp.