She was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, and served as a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.
As of 2017, Trent University offers Cyril and Jenny Carter Scholarships in Environmental Studies and Mathematics.
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 activist declared, "We cannot afford to keep building power stations at $25 billion each."
[9] In March 1991, Carter announced that the government would switch heating in public housing projects to gas from electricity.