You're a candidate for which party, now? Err, parties?

With elections in the air, voters around the country are bound to have candidates come calling to ask for support at the local, provincial or federal level. Most of those pitches will start with the candidate's name and the party they're representing.

For one Alberta politician, however, the intro will take a little bit longer.

Laurie Blakeman's campaign spiel will have to include information about three different parties.

The Alberta MLA has won the nominations of the provincial Liberals, the Green Party of Alberta, and the Alberta Party and will represent all three in the race to represent Edmonton in the next election.

She says the idea is to represent all of the "progressive" vote, although the NDP were not interested in having Blakeman represent them as well. 

There are cases where the each party's platform contradicts the other. For instance, the Alberta Party supports the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, while the Green Party opposes it. Blakeman says she'll manage those issues on a case by case basis, discussing each decision with the party leaders.

For legal reasons, Blakeman will appear on the ballot as a Liberal candidate, but she'll campaign for all three.

I talked with the Chief Electoral Officer quite a bit before I tried this. He told me I could only put in one nomination from one party... but in my head I'm going forward representing all three groups- Laurie Blakeman, Liberal MLA for Edmonton-Centre

When asked if this move denies the voters of Edmonton-Centre greater choice in political representative, Blakeman noted that in the previous election, neither the Green Party nor the Alberta Party ran a candidate in her riding.