Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/407098
14 w e s t w o r l d | w i n t e r 2 0 1 4 dave yanko L et's face it, unless you're into snow sports or you've booked a break at a tropical Margaritaville, January's arrival in Saskatchewan isn't the time for unremitting glee. So why not plan a bulwark to the blahs with a close-to-home, weekend escape designed to stimulate mind and body? Begin your weekend of enlightenment and relaxation in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan. Located an hour southwest of Moose Jaw, the town is home to 3,000 souls, one of them Bill Shurniak, retired banker and businessman and founder of the surprising and extraordinary Shurniak Art Gallery. Shurniak's story reads a bit like a Horatio Alger tale of rags to riches, although years in international banking circles have left him far too discreet to describe it that way himself. Born and raised in the Dirty irties on a mixed farm close to Limerick, Saskatchewan, Shurniak's sandbox was the silty drifts of top- soil deposited by the relentless wind. His mother made his shirts and pants by ripping out the seams of his older brothers' clothes and retailoring the segments to fit Shurniak, the youngest of nine siblings, seven of whom sur- vived infancy. The kids were lucky to get one store-bought toy at Christmas. Now jump ahead half a century and imag- ine one of those helicopter movie shots zoom- ing into a window of one of the tall, shimmering skyscrapers that comprise the international business hub of Hong Kong. It's 1985 and there's Shurniak in a plush office sipping tea with Li Ka-shing (labelled "Superman" by Forbes Magazine in 2014 for his business savvy and status as the wealthiest man in Asia). Shurniak's 35-year career in banking had culminated in his appointment as head of Asia-Pacific operations for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Hong Kong, where he met Li. He then went corporate in a grand way, becoming the chief financial officer of publicly traded Hutchison Whampoa, a huge and diversified Fortune 500 company in which Li has a controlling interest. getaways The weather outside might be frightful, but inside the art's delightful – in Assiniboia by dAve yAnko Gallery Gazing (top) The Shurniak Art Gallery houses some 300 to 500 paintings and just as many artifacts; (above) gallery owner Bill Shurniak by Ai Xuan's painting.