Donald Trump is officially the 45th President of the United States, pledging to implement pro-business, stimulative policy in his quest to become the “greatest” job-creating president ever. The incoming president has assembled a cabinet laden with business heavyweights, including titans of industry Wilbur Ross, Rex Tillerson and Steve Mnuchin. Below, a sampling of reaction BNN has gathered from the business and political community on the new Commander-in-Chief’s plans.

Former Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, on Canada-US relations:

“We have a mood across the United States that’s much more protectionist … we’ll be playing defence, not offence.”

Barry Campbell, former parliamentary secretary to Paul Martin, on the ripple effect of protectionism:

“’Buy America’ begets ‘Buy Europe,’ ‘Buy Canada’: we could have ourselves in a full-fledged trade war before too long.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins on economic priorities:

“This is a president who wants to spur the economy. There’s no question that job creation and spurring the economy will trump carbon taxes and climate change regulations.”

Former TransCanada CEO Hal Kvisle on executive orders, and what it could mean for Keystone XL:

“I think President Trump might be doing a few things in the months ahead with the stroke of a pen that other people might think he should be going through a legislative process. I would have some hope that he would give approval to Keystone XL.”

Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers President Tim McMillan on Canada’s energy approach:

“With the new president making oil and gas a centerpiece of [the U.S.] economic revival … we have to take a Team Canada approach to making our oil and gas as competitive as possible.”

Former International Trade Minister Jim Peterson on whether Canada will be caught in protectionist net:

“We’re going to be hit: they’ve said NAFTA is up for renegotiation, and that’s going to be their priority. We have to be ready for it.”

Wellington Financial CEO Mark McQueen on repositioning Canada as Trump says Buy American

“We’re going to need to bob and weave to deal with what is a reality for us, and we have to be pragmatic.”

Former Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Allan Gotlieb on Trump’s appointments:

“There’s another thing in play in Washington these days, and it’s called ideology. You can see it in some of the appointments … appointing somebody to be head of the Energy Department [who] wanted to shut it down.”

McQueen on Trump’s efforts to return jobs to the U.S.

“He thinks he’s returning jobs from Mexico at Carrier or GM or Ford, that’s a huge win. You do four or five more months of that, and he can coast, I think, for three more years”

CIBC Deputy Chief Economist Benjamin Tal on Trump’s plan to repatriate jobs

“Those jobs will not be coming back to Michigan or Ohio, we all know that. For every job we lost to trade we lost eight to automation: The genie’s out of the bottle. He’s not going to get those jobs back in any significant way, and all those people in Michigan will be waiting four years from now. I think he will be a one-term President.”