Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s dollar may strengthen to a record high against its U.S. counterpart as demand for the country’s commodities increases, said David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Toronto-based wealth manager Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc.

The currency, nicknamed the loonie, today touched C$1.0207 per U.S. dollar, the strongest level since July 29, 2008, and traded at C$1.0345 at 4:36 p.m. in Toronto. The loonie closed at a record 92.03 Canadian cents per U.S. dollar on Nov. 6, 2007.

“Are we going to go to a new high?” Rosenberg, former North American chief economist at Merrill Lynch & Co., said in an interview today in Toronto. “The answer to that question is yes. The question is when, but I don’t think anybody’s got the answer to that.”

The Canadian currency last traded at C$1 to the greenback in July 2008.

The loonie is in a “fundamental uptrend for two reasons: The U.S. dollar is in a fundamental downtrend, and because commodities are also on a fundamental uptrend,” Rosenberg said.

Canada gets more than half of its export revenue from raw materials, and is the biggest supplier of energy products to the U.S., the world’s largest economy. The Canadian dollar may also benefit from the country’s smaller government deficits and debt than the U.S., Rosenberg said.

Another sign of the Canadian dollar’s strength is its gains this year against other currencies, Rosenberg said. The loonie advanced in 2009 against 11 of the 16 most-traded currencies tracked by Bloomberg, including the pound and the euro.

To contact the reporters on this story: Sean B. Pasternak in Toronto at spasternak@bloomberg.net; Greg Quinn in Ottawa at gquinn1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 15, 2009 16:49 EDT