Jenny Carter (born December 26, 1931) is a former

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. She was a

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

member of the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...

from 1990 to 1995, and served as a

cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

in the government of

Bob Rae Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the ...

Background

Carter obtained a degree in French from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

and degrees in English and Canadian Studies from

Trent University Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Founded in 1964, the university is known for its Oxbridge college system, sma ...

Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...

, and a post-graduate certificate from the

Institute of Education The UCL Institute of Education (IOE) is the faculty of education and society of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior t ...

. She worked as a secondary school teacher before entering political life. Carter's husband Cyril, who once ran for the federal

, died in 1993. As of 2017, Trent University offers Cyril and Jenny Carter Scholarships in Environmental Studies and Mathematics.

Politics

In the 1990 provincial election, she ran as the NDP candidate in the riding of

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

. She defeated

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

incumbent Peter Adams by 134 votes. She was appointed to Rae's first cabinet on October 1, 1990, as the provincial Minister of Energy. A self-confessed novice, she said that her husband knew more about the energy sector then she did. Shortly after her appointment, her husband, who was a member of the Peterborough Utilities Commission, resigned his post. He said, "Legally, I have no conflict but I recognize the public perception of conflict of interest is wider than the strict legal definition of a specific pecuniary interest." In November 1990, Carter announced that the government was putting a freeze on the construction of nuclear plants. She told Ontario Hydro to divert $240 million earmarked for site preparation for new nuclear plants to instead be used for energy conservation efforts. Carter who earlier said in a speech to the house that she was an

anti-nuclear The Anti-nuclear war movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, n ...

activist declared, "We cannot afford to keep building power stations at $25 billion each." She promised to give priority to new hydroelectric and natural gas projects. Rather than a total ban, she said that she would await the outcome of a study of Ontario's energy needs for the next 25 years. In March 1991, Carter announced that the government would switch heating in public housing projects to gas from electricity. She said, "installing gas heating in new non-profit homes will save 100 megawatts." In July 1991, Carter was dropped from cabinet. Critics said that she failed to establish herself as energy minister. She was replaced by

Will Ferguson William Stener Ferguson (born October 12, 1964) is a Canadian travel writer and novelist who won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel '' 419'' (2012). Biography Ferguson was born fourth of six children in the former fur trading post of ...

. For the remainder of her term, she served as

parliamentary assistant In British politics and some Commonwealth nations, a parliamentary assistant is an unelected partisan staff member employed by a Member of Parliament (MP) to assist them with their parliamentary duties. Parliamentary assistants usually work ...

to the Minister of Citizenship. In

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, Carter lost to Progressive Conservative Gary Stewart in her bid for re-election.

Cabinet positions

After politics

Since leaving politics, Carter has contributed occasional articles to the ''Peterborough Collective'' and has served on the Peterborough NDP

riding association An electoral district association (), commonly known as a riding association () or constituency association, is the basic unit of a political party at the level of the electoral district An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) distr ...

executive. She married climate change activist Ken Ranney, co-founder of the Stop Climate Change political party.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Jenny 1931 births Alumni of the University of London Alumni of the UCL Institute of Education Canadian anti–nuclear power activists Canadian educators Canadian women educators Women government ministers of Canada English emigrants to Canada Living people Members of the Executive Council of Ontario Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs People from Worcester Park People from Peterborough, Ontario Trent University alumni Women MPPs in Ontario 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario 20th-century Canadian women politicians