CBC reports that watermelon in northern Labrador is going for $55 a melon. Honest.

Scotia Capital economist Adrienne Warren takes a look at some recent residential real estate data from both Canada and the U.S. She says the crisis in the U.S. appears to moderating although she's not ready to call an end to the housing downturn there.... The volume of homes for sale in Canada’s resale market has also been moving up, and combined with softer demand, has lifted the national ratio of new listings to sales from an average of 1.6 in 2007 to 2.0 in June.... There are significant regional differences,however, with new-listings-to-sales ratios in several of Canada’s previously hottest markets, including Saskatoon, Calgary and Vancouver, now favouring home buyers, with greater inherent downside price risk.

Why, just this morning, Jim Flaherty, the federal Finance Minister and a sworn enemy of paying for anything remotely resembling a boondogle, just cut a $460,000 cheque, on behalf of his colleague Josée Verner, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, to the Textile Museum of Canada. The Textile Museum of Canada will use this $460,000 to create a section on its Web site called "In Touch: Connecting Cloth, Culture, and Art." "Canadians have made tremendous contributions to the arts, especially in the area of textiles, and now our rich culture and history will be proudly on display for all to see," said Flaherty in a press release announcing the contribution. Heritage Canada says "this site will engage people of all ages in exploring our rich cultural diversity through textiles.