EDMONTON—In her first statement as a member of the Alberta NDP caucus, Sandra Jansen stood in the legislature Tuesday and read a sample of the “offensive, threatening and abusive” messages she’s received over the past week.

She said Albertans have sent her messages labelling her as “dead meat,’’ a “useless tit” and a “dumb broad,” and some that told her she should stay in the kitchen.

After her statement, the MLAs in the legislature gave her a standing ovation.

Jansen, who crossed the floor from the Progressive Conservatives to the NDP late last week, used her first member’s statement to recount comments Albertans have sent her.

“Isn’t it embarrassing that you have to hear it in the House, when you have to hear it in a place where we work as legislators? I think we needed that moment,” Jansen said, in an interview afterward.

Although she’s spoken about the issue before, including in Metro’s series on women politicians facing abuse last week, Jansen said speaking out in such a public way Tuesday made her feel “hopeful.”

She is calling on her colleagues to identify abuse and not let comments on their Facebook pages and websites go unchallenged.

“I worry about that next generation of female leaders who aren’t going to come to the table,” Jansen said.

“Because they see this and say, ‘Why would I bother doing something like that with the kind of misogynistic, gendered abuse that seems to be levelled out there right now at female politicians?’”

The Calgary-North West legislature member crossed the floor from the Tories, a party she had been affiliated with for 30 years.

Jansen said the abuse and harassment she endured running on a progressive platform in the Progressive Conservative party leadership race had become intolerable.

She said she fears the PCs are moving to the hard right on social issues and now feels more at home in Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP.

With files from The Canadian Press

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