OTTAWA, Sept. 21 — Elene Fromanger saw little evidence of the Canadian dollar’s new might when she went shopping for health care books on Friday afternoon.

All of them were marked with separate prices for Canada and the United States. With the Canadian dollar now at par with the United States currency, no calculator was needed to discover that Ms. Fromanger paid $18 more before sales tax than an American shopper would have for the same three books.

“It’s ridiculous,” she said outside a downtown Ottawa bookstore. “They still charge more, but the dollar has been going up for two years. I find it inexcusable.”

Canadians may now be wealthier in global terms, but the even exchange rate with the United States dollar now makes it immediately obvious that they also pay more than Americans for many goods.