NEW YORK — Canada’s dollar was worth more than the U.S. greenback for the first time since July 2008 on the back of the rising price of crude oil and the prospect of higher interest rates.

Canada’s dollar, dubbed the loonie for the aquatic bird on the C$1 coin, last traded through parity with the U.S. dollar on July 22, 2008, 11 days after crude, the country’s biggest export, reached a record $147.27 a barrel. Oil traded near a 17- month high Tuesday.

“As we trade around it and move through it, the parity level becomes much less of a target and more of an accepted norm,” said Sacha Tihanyi, a currency strategist in Toronto at Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada’s third-largest bank. “Everything continues to be in line for Canadian dollar strength.”

The currency traded at C$1.0001 at 2:20 p.m. in Toronto, compared with from C$1.0022 Monday. One Canadian dollar buys 99.99 U.S. cents.