Freeland, 52, a former journalist and foreign minister, on Tuesday became Canada's first female finance minister, a day after Bill Morneau resigned. She also keeps her job as deputy prime minister. "It's about time that we broke that glass ceiling,'' Freeland said.

The appointment comes a day after Morneau resigned as finance minister amid reports of differences with Trudeau over government spending to protect the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.

Freeland will now be tasked with reviving an economy crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the budget deficit this fiscal year forecast to hit C$343.2 billion ($253.4 billion, €218.7 billion). That would be the largest shortfall since World War II.

"We need a long term plan for recovery, a plan that addresses head-on the fundamental gaps that this pandemic has unmasked," Trudeau told a news conference.

'Once in a lifetime challenge'

Canada should embrace "bold new solutions," he said, citing the need to do a better job of protecting the vulnerable and greening an economy that relies heavily on fossil fuel exports.

"The coronavirus is still with us. This is a once in a lifetime challenge for whole country,'' Freeland said. "We will do whatever it takes to support Canadians.''

Freeland, personally recruited by Trudeau to join his Liberal Party while it was the third party in Parliament in 2013, is considered his most likely successor as party leader.

She is credited with helping to negotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade pact in 2017 and 2018.

Freeland has also been a frequent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who banned her from traveling to the country in 2014 in retaliation for Western sanctions against Moscow.

tg/sri (AP, Reuters)