Canadian Dollar: returns since 1971

The Canadian dollar, the "loonie," moves with commodities and especially oil, and our series tracks the value of one Canadian dollar in U.S. dollars since 1971. It has swung from above parity to near $0.62, tracking energy prices closely — a currency that often reads like a chart of crude.

One honesty note: this is the exchange rate against the U.S. dollar (FRED H.10), not a return. Holding cash earns no interest, so the line above is currency movement and not a yield, and the comparison against U.S. inflation (CPI) shows what a dollar holder actually kept in real terms.

The loonie pushed above parity with the U.S. dollar in 2007 and held there again from 2011 to 2013, while oil traded near 100 dollars a barrel. It then fell hard when prices collapsed from late 2014, and again during the brief negative-oil shock of April 2020, when futures settled below zero for the first time on record. Canada's status as a major energy exporter ties the currency to the resource cycle more tightly than to interest rates, and the year-by-year table below lines those turns up against the barrel.

Descriptive, educational content computed from official public data. Not investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.