Blaine Calkins: The MP Carrying Bill C-224
He has sponsored the bill to take supplements out of Vanessa’s Law twice. The lobby’s lawyer says he wrote the first draft. Calkins says Parliament’s drafters did. Here is the record.
The short version
- Who: Blaine Calkins, Conservative MP for Ponoka–Didsbury, Alberta. In Parliament since 2006.
- The bill: sponsor of C-368 (2023–25) and its reintroduction, C-224, which would remove Health Canada’s Vanessa’s Law powers over natural health products, including mandatory recalls.
- Who wrote it: NHPPA president Shawn Buckley told a Commons committee, “I wrote the first draft for MP Blaine Calkins.” Calkins says the House’s legislative drafters wrote it, after he asked Buckley what it should say.
- Also: panel member at the 2026 Allison Inquiry into COVID vaccine injuries, where Buckley was counsel.
Who he is
Calkins grew up on a family farm near Lacombe, Alberta. He holds a zoology degree from the University of Alberta and a conservation-enforcement diploma from Lethbridge College, and worked as a park ranger and college instructor. He began in politics on Lacombe town council and joined the Reform Party in 1996.
He has been an MP since 2006: for Wetaskiwin, then Red Deer–Lacombe, and since 2025 for Ponoka–Didsbury, which he won with about 82% of the vote. He was Chief Opposition Whip in 2022 and chairs the Conservative Hunting and Angling Caucus. His safe seat matters here: a sponsor with nothing to fear at the polls can carry a bill for as long as he likes.
The bill, step by step
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 22 Jun 2023 | Budget bill C-47 extends Vanessa’s Law to natural health products. |
| 5 Dec 2023 | Calkins introduces C-368, seconded by MP Brad Vis, to repeal sections 500–504 of the budget act. |
| 29 May 2024 | C-368 passes second reading, 171 to 146, with Conservative, NDP and Bloc support. |
| 26 Sep 2024 | Buckley tells the Government Operations Committee: “I wrote the first draft for MP Blaine Calkins.” |
| Nov–Dec 2024 | C-368 clears the Health Committee. The Canadian Health Food Association calls it a “victory” and commends Calkins’s leadership. |
| Jan 2025 | C-368 dies when Parliament is prorogued. |
| 18 Sep 2025 | Calkins reintroduces it as C-224. |
| 10 Mar 2026 | Second reading passes unanimously. |
| 7 Oct 2026 | The Health Committee’s Liberal majority deletes every clause. |
| 4 Nov 2026 | News conference with Buckley on Parliament Hill, carried by CPAC. |
| 3 Dec 2026* | Report stage, where Calkins can move to restore the deleted clauses. *Date as given by the NHPPA. |
Who wrote the bill?
Two accounts are on the parliamentary record, and they don’t quite match.
Shawn Buckley
“I am familiar with the bill; I wrote the first draft for MP Blaine Calkins.” (Government Operations Committee, 26 September 2024)
Truehope’s podcast, Truehope Cast, says Buckley “drafted a Private Member’s Bill” that became C-368. The Western Standard reported the bill was “composed by” him.
Blaine Calkins
“I had a bill drafted by the legislative drafters here. I asked Mr. Buckley if he would send me what he thought the bill should be.” (Health Committee, answering Liberal MP Dr. Brendan Hanley)
Asked whether he was the spokesperson for the natural health products industry: “No, it wouldn’t be accurate at all.”
Both men agree on one thing: the sponsor asked the president of the industry’s advocacy group what the bill should say. Private members routinely get help from interested groups, and the House’s drafters always produce the final legal text. But MPs and voters are entitled to know whose ideas a bill carries. Buckley is also the lawyer who defended Truehope’s unlicensed EMPowerplus and the parents of Ezekiel Stephan. See our profile.
What he has claimed, and the record
| Calkins said | The record |
|---|---|
| December 2023: “70 per cent of brands have indicated they will need to withdraw products from the market and one in five are considering leaving Canada.” | An industry survey of intentions, not an outcome. The industry has made the same kind of forecast before: in 2009 a Fraser Institute study, citing Buckley, predicted 60–75% of natural health products would disappear. The 2021 federal audit then counted more than 91,000 products licensed since 2004. |
| Natural health products were classed separately “due to the minimal risk they pose to their users.” | Low risk is not no risk. The same 2021 audit found misleading advertising on 88% of sampled products, and before 2023 hospitals did not have to report supplement reactions at all. |
| 4 November 2026: under the 2023 rules a small vitamin shop faces “the same kind of process that a company like Pfizer would have to go through.” | Supplements are still licensed under the lighter 2004 Natural Health Products Regulations. The 2023 change added post-market powers: recalls, label changes, and demands for safety information. |
| 4 November 2026: there are “very few incidences” of harm. | Few were counted because few had to be reported. Mandatory reporting is one of the things C-224 would weaken. |
| The 2023 change was slipped into a budget bill without proper debate. | Fair point. A change this large deserved its own bill and hearings. That argues for a proper review, not for removing recall power. |
One thing he rarely mentions: C-224 also contains a transitional clause halting prosecutions for some offences committed since 2023.
Same song, two singers: Buckley and Calkins
Calkins sponsors the bill; Buckley says he drafted it. Set side by side, their arguments are nearly the same.
| Topic | Shawn Buckley, NHPPA | Blaine Calkins, MP | The record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who wrote the bill | “I wrote the first draft for MP Blaine Calkins.” (Commons committee, 2024) | “I had a bill drafted by the legislative drafters here. I asked Mr. Buckley if he would send me what he thought the bill should be.” (Health Committee) | Both agree the sponsor asked the lobby’s lawyer what the bill should say. |
| Products will vanish | About 60%, and possibly 70–75%, of natural health products would disappear under the 2004 rules. (2008 article, cited by the Fraser Institute in 2009) | “70 per cent of brands have indicated they will need to withdraw products from the market.” (2023) | More than 91,000 products were licensed after 2004 (2021 federal audit). |
| Safety | “There has never been a documented death caused by a natural health product.” (Calgary Herald, 2010) | Natural health products pose “minimal risk” (2023); “very few incidences” of harm (2026). | Before 2023, hospitals did not have to report supplement reactions. The 2021 audit found misleading advertising on 88% of sampled products. |
| Health Canada | Health Canada is “paid for by the pharmaceutical industry.” (4 Nov 2026) | A small vitamin shop faces “the same kind of process that a company like Pfizer would have to go through.” (4 Nov 2026) | Drug fees cover part of the cost of regulating drugs; Parliament funds the department. Supplements are still licensed under the lighter 2004 rules. |
| Who they speak for | President of the Natural Health Products Protection Association; long-time lawyer for Truehope. | Asked if he is the industry’s spokesperson: “No, it wouldn’t be accurate at all.” | The Canadian Health Food Association called his bill’s progress a “victory” and commended his leadership (2024). |
Sources for each quotation are on our Calkins, Buckley and Bill C-224 pages.
COVID, and the Allison panel
- January 2022: on the federal vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers, he called it “just another slap in the face and an insult to people who are smart enough to see that this is not working.”
- September 2026: he sat on the panel of the Allison Inquiry, four days of COVID vaccine-injury testimony chaired by MP Dean Allison on Parliament Hill. It was not an official parliamentary inquiry. Buckley was its counsel. Its expert witnesses included U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. James Thorp; see Imported Experts.
So the sponsor of the supplement bill and the lawyer who says he drafted it sat together at a vaccine-injury hearing whose experts’ central claims have been rejected by fact-checkers and their own professional bodies. That is the company Bill C-224 keeps.
Who else backs the bill
It isn’t only the NHPPA. The Canadian Health Food Association, the industry’s largest trade group, called C-368’s passage through committee a “victory” in December 2024. In 2005 the same association told MPs it wanted natural health products kept in a distinct category under stronger law; see This isn’t the first time.
What you can do
- Tell your MP what you think before report stage. Find your MP at ourcommons.ca/members.
- Follow the bill on LEGISinfo.
- Report a bad reaction to a supplement through Health Canada’s MedEffect Canada.
Sources
- Blaine Calkins, Wikipedia; official biography; riding profile (town council, Reform Party); The Albertan, 2025.
- Ponoka News, “Vaccine mandates for truckers an insult, says Red Deer-Lacombe MP,” January 2022.
- Red Deer Advocate, “Red Deer-Lacombe MP introduces bill to roll back new natural health product regulations,” December 2023; Western Standard (“composed by” Buckley).
- openparliament.ca, Bill C-368; second-reading vote, 29 May 2024.
- Standing Committee on Health, 44th Parliament, meeting 132: Dr. Brendan Hanley quoting Buckley; Calkins’s reply.
- Truehope Cast, EP164, 15 October 2024 (guest biography).
- Canadian Health Food Association, “Victory in the Fight for Canadians’ Access to Natural Health Products,” 2 December 2024.
- CPAC, Calkins and Buckley news conference, 4 November 2026.
- Further sources for the bill, the 2021 audit and the Allison Inquiry are on our Bill C-224 and Imported Experts pages.