The federal Conservative Party posted a promotional video on one of its social media pages that included footage of Russian-made fighter jets and then removed it.

The video – posted on X (formerly Twitter) over the weekend – shows, along with archive footage, an excerpt from a speech given by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre at this year’s Calgary Stampede.

At one point in the video, Poilievre speaks of fighter jets conducting a training mission and preparing to “defend our homeland and our fatherland.” However, the footage used shows Russian-made jets.

“The video was removed – mistakes happen,” said Sarah Fischer, communications director for the Conservative Party of Canada. Fischer also pointed to a 2011 Liberal ad that used stock images of Canadians instead of real supporters.

The Liberals reacted immediately to the video, accusing the Conservatives of being “too soft on Russia.”

“Shockingly, Mr. Poilievre’s dream for Canada involves Russian fighter jets (a Su-17 and one that looks like a Su-27) flying over our beautiful prairies on a ‘training mission’ while Russia continues its illegal, unprovoked war against Ukraine, ignoring the international rules designed to protect us all,” said a press release from Defense Secretary Bill Blair’s office.

Some social media users also asked whether some of the other footage used in the video was actually shot in Canada.

“If you’re creating content and you want to animate your campaign speech and make it more dynamic, you can use archive video. It’s not too uncommon,” says Fenwick McKelvey, a professor of information and communications technology at Concordia University.

Other parties have posted videos on social media that they later deleted. Last month, Justice Minister Arif Virani posted a video and then deleted contains a number of errors regarding the Government’s changes to capital gains tax.

McKelvey said there is a risk of errors when posting content online.

“It’s not necessarily a good thing, but it’s part of the game that people catch you when you make those mistakes,” he said.