Laura Lynch, a longtime CBC political reporter and foreign correspondent, has been named interim host of The Current.

The veteran broadcaster will debut at the helm of CBC Radio's national weekday morning current affairs program on Monday, and will guide listeners through the 2019 federal election campaign with her sharp, thoughtful interviews.

"I'm excited," Lynch said. "It's quite a privilege to bring Canadians stories from across the country and around the world."

Lynch is best known for her award-winning work as a globe-trotting foreign correspondent and her political prowess from decades spent covering different governments, both in Canada and abroad.

"Laura brings a huge depth and breadth of political reporting experience that will help guide our audience through the election campaign," said Cathy Perry, senior director of network talk programming on CBC Radio One.

In the 1990s, Lynch served as a national reporter with CBC's parliamentary bureau in Ottawa. She was also based in Washington, D.C., when the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks happened and covered the aftermath.

While posted in London as CBC's Europe correspondent, she reported on the 2004 Madrid train bombings and the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto. That same year, Lynch went undercover to report on the Zimbabwe election when Western journalists were barred from entering the country.

It's that critical, on-the-ground understanding of what people are going through that Lynch says she aims to bring to The Current.

Lynch has been close to The Current since the show hit the CBC Radio airwaves. In the summer of 2003, she became the first guest host to lead the 90-minute program while Anna Maria Tremonti was away.

The Current's top post has been vacant since Tremonti left in June after 17 seasons of hosting the acclaimed show in order to produce and host new, original podcasts for CBC.

A permanent host will be named later in the season.