To say 2010 was an annus horribilis for the Aspers is an understatement of epic proportions. It was the year in which Winnipeg’s one-time royal family saw its corporate empire, Canwest Global Communications Corp., crash for good.

All three of Izzy Asper’s offspring — Leonard, David and Gail — were heavily involved in the company, founded by their father in the mid-1970s with the purchase of a single television station in North Dakota.

Leonard, the youngest, was at the helm during Canwest’s spectacular fall. A proud Winnipegger, Leonard had moved to Toronto several years ago in an attempt to develop closer relationships with advertisers for Canwest’s Global television network. He now likely has been lost to his hometown for good. His wife, Susan, is from Toronto and Leonard recently resurfaced as the CEO and a significant shareholder in the Fight Network, a Toronto-based specialty channel focused on combat sports.

David Asper has done little better. The former chairman of the National Post and a senior executive at Canwest, the eldest Asper sibling made his biggest headlines last year with an ambitious plan to buy a controlling interest in the Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers and build a state-of-the-art stadium for the team.

But the project was fraught with problems. First, there was the proposed high-end retail centre, to be called the Elms, which would be anchored by major U.S.-based tenants and fund the massive government loan required to get the stadium built. Dragged down by a flailing economy, the promised retailers failed to surface. The proposal was also plagued by cost overruns. In the end, Asper was punted from the group and a deal to build a $190-million, 33,000-seat stadium was signed by the province, the City of Winnipeg and the football club.

The Asper family’s once-magical touch would appear to be all but gone if it weren’t for Gail. Although she was also an executive and director with Canwest, she has spent the bulk of her time since her father’s death in 2003 attempting to bring his dream of a Canadian Museum for Human Rights to life. And she’s almost there. Although not all of the funding has been firmed up for the $310-million project, she has persuaded the federal government to fund $22 million in annual operating costs for the first national museum to be built outside of Ottawa.

The controversial building, described by the museum as a “glass cloud,” was designed by American architect Antoine Predock and is rising at the Forks in Winnipeg. Scheduled to open in 2012, the CMHR is already being talked about as a must-see global tourist destination. Some people expect the museum will have an economic impact on Winnipeg similar to that of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum on Bilbao, Spain.

Perhaps 2011 and beyond will be kinder to the Aspers. After all the time, energy and money they’ve invested in Winnipeg, they deserve it. IE