Ernest George Hansell (14 May 1895 – 9 December 1965) was an ordained minister and a Canadian federal and provincial politician.
Early Life and Background
Hansell was born in Norwich, England, the son of Walter Hansell, an FA Cup-winning footballer with the Old Carthusians in 1881. He moved with his family to Reston, Manitoba in 1904, and later to Calgary in 1911. In 1917, he became a cartoonist for the Calgary News Telegram. He married Alice Edwards of New York, USA, in 1917, and the couple had two children, Ruth (Bodie) and Harry. Hansell was ordained as a minister in 1920 and was called to Westbourne Baptist Church.
Federal Politics
Hansell ran as a Social Credit candidate in the 1935 federal election, defeating incumbent Member of Parliament George Gibson Coote to win his first term in office. He was handpicked by Ernest Manning to serve as leader of the British Columbia Social Credit League during the 1952 British Columbia provincial election, despite being an Albertan. Social Credit unexpectedly won that election, but Hansell remained in Ottawa, and the British Columbia party chose William Andrew Bennett as its new leader and Premier.
Hansell was re-elected for a fifth term in the 1953 federal election, defeating four other candidates with the largest popular vote of his career. He won a sixth term in the 1957 federal election, defeating Progressive Conservative candidate Lawrence Kindt by a comfortable margin. However, in the 1958 federal election, Hansell was defeated amid that year's massive Progressive Conservative landslide, and the entire Social Credit caucus was unseated.
Provincial Politics
After his federal defeat, Hansell ran for the Alberta Legislature in the 1959 Alberta general election, defeating incumbent Ross Ellis. He served one term as a backbencher in the Social Credit government before retiring from provincial politics in 1963.
Death
Ernest George Hansell died on 9 December 1965.
