The Liberal Party of Canada has pulled controversial footage of an elderly 'Dipper couple kissing.

And after a day spent responding to CBC, Global, and other news media, Jean Macintyre realized that on a forgotten day in a North Vancouver coffee house, she and her husband innocently got themselves in trouble.

The two seniors appeared in a Liberal TV ad this week, without their knowledge. A brief shot of them kissing was supposed to make voters feel good about Liberal social policies.

Macintyre, a longtime New Democrat, was shocked to see herself and her husband in an ad promoting the Liberals. At first she thought one of their sons had shot the video in the Lower Lonsdale coffee shop three years ago.

But after The Hook reported Macintyre's amazement, she spent much of Wednesday fielding questions from local and national print and television reporters. Over the course of that questioning, Macintyre recalled that "two young photographers" had filmed the elderly couple – and suggested they kiss.

At first she couldn't recall giving the photographers permission to use the footage. Eventually, however, she realized that she and her husband, a former judge, had signed something called a "model release."

"I didn't know what the term meant," she told The Tyee on Wednesday night. "If they'd called it a waiver, I wouldn't have signed it."

The footage has been pulled from the Liberal ad.

Sheila Gervais, deputy director of communications for the Liberal campaign, said the Liberals bought the clip from from Getty Images and used it in good faith.

"The Liberals had zero – zero – to do with this," Gervais said.

Don Millar of The Element Agency, creators of the ad, notified his staff and clients that. "We are dropping in a new image shot of Liberals in Toronto... I think the thing is we are within our legal rights but acting in a respectful fashion."