“Margaret, I’d like you to meet Doug Ford,” said councillor Michael Thompson

“Doug, I’d like to introduce you to Margaret Atwood.”

It happened as she arrived at the Forest Hill home of arts world leaders Robert and Julia Foster.

The occasion was a farewell party for the mayor’s arts adviser Jeff Melanson, leaving next week to take a new job in Banff, Alta. He was a no-show because he was taken to hospital with food poisoning.

Atwood and Doug Ford were caught off-guard because the host chose not to warn either of them that the other would be at the party. These two guests had no trouble recognizing each other.

Thompson quickly took out his mobile phone to photograph the historic moment.

He plans to auction the original photo and donate the proceeds to city libraries.

“They were warm and charming and relaxed together,” said Thompson.

Mayor Rob Ford arrived minutes later, but by then both his brother and the revered author had departed.

Atwood posted her surprise on Twitter at 8:20 p.m.

“T-pals, UnBLeevAbul! I just met D. Ford! At a NotTimmies Arts Party! (He knows what I look like now! :D) Sez #libraries will not be cut! :D”

Atwood and Ford became embroiled in a very public feud over Ford’s plans to close some libraries, a plan the Ford administration says it will no longer pursue.

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Doug Ford inadvertently turned Atwood into the de facto leader of the battle against cuts to the city’s library system. After she endorsed an anti-cuts union petition and mocked Ford’s assertion that his ward has more libraries than Tim Hortons, Ford told reporters: "Well, good luck to Margaret Atwood. I don’t even know her. If she walked by me, I wouldn’t have a clue who she is."

The feud even resulted in calls for Atwood to run for the mayor’s chair.

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