Career
Hansell ran as a Social Cr candidate in the 1935 federal election. Hansell was hand-picked by Ernest Manning to serve as leader of the British Columbia Social Cr League during the 1952 British Columbia provincial election despite the fact that Hansell was an Albertan. He would defeat 4 other candidates, with the largest popular vote of his career.
Hansell would run again for his 6th term in office in the 1957 federal election He would defeat Lawrence Kindt by a comfortable margin.
Parliament would be dissolved a year later and Hansell and Kindt would face each other again this time Hansell would be defeated in the 1958 federal election in a landslide. After his defeat Hansell continued his work with the Social Cr party on the provincial level in Alberta.
After his defeat from the Canadian House of Commons, Hansell ran for the Alberta Legislature in the 1959 Alberta general election. Hansell served for 1 term as a backbencher in the Social Cr government before retiring from provincial politics in 1963.