Career
Her first experience in politics was with the Ron Ghitter campaign for the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives in 1985, alongside Alison Redford. Soon after, Jansen began a 25-year career in television broadcast journalism – first at CICT in Calgary, then in Montreal. Her career apex was in the late 1990s at CTV NewsNet/CTV News Channel in Toronto as one of their anchors.
In the mid-2000s Jansen left Toronto to return to Calgary, anchoring the nightly news for Citytv Calgary.
In 2007, Jansen left journalism to obtain a master"s degree in professional communications, graduating in 2009. She was elected to the legislative assembly in 2012.
Jansen was named an associate minister on July 26, 2013, and sworn in on August 1, 2013 in the position of Minister of Family and Community Safety. As the newly elected Modern Language Association of Calgary-North West, Jansen spearheaded many initiatives including rallying the importance of a new middle school in the community of Rocky Ridge/Royal Oak to then Education Minister, Jeff Johnson.
The prospective school had been dropped from second to seventh place on the priority list of schools produced by the Calgary Board of Education in 2012.
After successfully demonstrating the need of constituents in the Calgary North-West community, the provincial government announced on May 1, 2013, that Rocky Ridge/Royal Oak would receive a new middle school, planned to open in fall 2016. Jansen also played a pivotal role in stopping an urban drilling site, proposed by Kaiser Exploration Limited, where 4 oil wells were planned to be drilled within 400 meters of the northwest residential community of Royal Oak. Jansen successfully expressed to legislature that current drilling policies do not take into account high-density areas.
After meetings with then Energy Minister, Ken Hughes, Jansen and Hughes discussed the importance of appropriate urban drilling policies for all Albertans, which takes into account air and water quality, pollution, and appropriate emergency evacuation routes.
Jansen also successfully identified 3 possible alternative drilling locations. In October 2013, it was announced that Kaiser Exploration Limited. would be moving its drilling sites 2.3 kilometers away.
In March 2014, Jansen was widely criticized after an appearance on CTV News Channel"s Power Play in which she insulted Modern Language Association Len Webber for leaving the Personal Computer Party caucus. Jansen said Webber should "go back to being an electrician".
Many found it ironic that Jansen had recently been given the associate minister of family and community safety portfolio, a role in which she had focused on combating bullying.
Jansen was shuffled out of the provincial cabinet on September 15, 2014.
