If Peter MacKay wins the federal Conservative party leadership, Premier Doug Ford will owe him a mostly forgotten, but significant, debt.

In 2013, MacKay had a brief but important turn in Rob Ford’s saga of substance abuse and denial, a story in which Doug Ford had a co-starring role as his late brother’s adviser and chief defender.

In March 2013, the Star dropped a front-page bombshell with the headline “Rob Ford: ‘Intoxicated’ Toronto mayor asked to leave military ball,” in a story published before allegations his crack cocaine use became public.

The Star revealed that Ford, who had been elected mayor three years earlier, had spoken in a “rambling, incoherent manner that alarmed some of the guests” at the annual Garrison Ball fundraiser, which was attended by then-defence minister MacKay and 800 others with military connections.

Councillor Paul Ainslie told the Star he urged Ford’s chief of staff, Mark Towhey, to have the mayor leave the event. One of three Garrison organizers who spoke to the Star anonymously said Ford “seemed either drunk, high or had a medical condition.”

“It’s an open secret at city hall that the mayor has battled alcohol abuse,” the story said.

Other news outlets watched and waited. Talk radio debated the validity of the report that followed allegations an “out of it” Ford had groped former mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson at another public event. Skepticism was countered with a reminder that in 2006, as a city councillor, Ford had drunkenly berated a couple at a Toronto Maple Leafs game.

Rob Ford called the Star story an “outright lie.” Doug Ford, then a city councillor, agreed, calling radio station AM640 to allege a conspiracy by Star reporters to bring down his brother. “I’ve never seen Rob drink at any event, ever,” he said.

Towhey publicly denied that Ainslie had asked him to get Ford out of the ball.

Doug Holyday, a city councillor at the time and a staunch Ford supporter, told the Toronto Sun, “I don’t know what to believe anymore.” Public debate raged about who to believe.

Enter Peter MacKay, a popular and respected cabinet minister in the Stephen Harper government.

In an email, MacKay told the Globe and Mail that he had spoken briefly with Rob Ford at the event. “He looked fine to me,” the defence minister wrote. The Toronto Sun got the same statement.

MacKay’s declaration helped deflate the story. A federal cabinet minister and former leader of the Progressive Conservative party said he talked to Ford and the mayor looked fine. And unlike many of those who said anonymously that Ford appeared intoxicated and had a drinking problem, MacKay was on the record.

The news cycle moved on for two months until the Star revealed the existence of a video in which Rob Ford appeared to be smoking crack cocaine. That story triggered months of more denials before Rob Ford finally admitted drug and alcohol issues and entered rehab.

We later learned that, to his own chief of staff, the mayor did indeed appear intoxicated at the Garrison Ball.

Rob Ford “looked like s - - t on a stick. His face was scarlet and beaded with sweat. He was arguing with Nico and his arms were flailing around like a man trying to shoo flies away,” Towhey wrote in a memoir entitled, “Mayor Rob Ford: Uncontrollable.” “He appeared to be under the influence of something — alcohol for sure, and maybe something more.

“As well, a few friends I knew in uniform, a member of Parliament, and a senior political staffer to a federal minister expressed concern for the mayor’s health, asking, ‘Is he okay?’”

After reading that, I wondered how MacKay could describe Rob Ford as looking “fine to me.”

Harper’s Conservatives had continued to support the Fords, with their GTA “Ford Nation” voter base, even as it became apparent that Rob Ford was lying about his alcohol and drug use and his exploits became the subject of international headlines.

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The government was officially tough on crime and illegal drug users, but not on the mayor. Meanwhile, Rob Ford was slamming social “hug-a-thug” programs even as he was privately photographed literally embracing gang members who sold drugs and guns.

Fast forward to January 2017. Rob Ford had been through rehab and returned to city hall before dying of cancer. Doug Ford had lost a mayoral bid and returned to the family printing business. And MacKay, who had left politics and Nova Scotia for a home in Toronto and a job as a Bay St. lawyer, made a surprise appearance at city hall to give resident input on a local issue.

Curious reporters gathered and he spoke with them after his deputation.

I couldn’t resist asking him to square Towhey’s account of sweaty, messy “s - - t on a stick” Rob Ford with his “fine to me” Rob Ford.

MacKay didn’t seem fussed by the question.

“Actually, what I said at the time was he looked like himself to me,” MacKay said before walking away.

Except he didn’t say that — and there’s a significant difference between saying someone accused of being a messy drunk at a public function “looked fine” and saying he looked “like himself.”

After MacKay publicly confirmed that he intends to seek the Conservative leadership, I emailed questions to him and his leadership campaign spokesman Michael Diamond, a prominent Conservative strategist with deep Ford connections.

Diamond was director of operations for Rob Ford’s 2010 mayoral campaign, campaign manager for Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative leadership bid and campaign director for Ford’s 2018 Ontario election win.

I asked about MacKay’s exact recollection of how Rob Ford appeared at the Garrison Ball, how he reconciles his different descriptions of Ford at the event, and whether he has an ongoing relationship with Doug Ford.

We don’t know the answers to those questions. Neither MacKay nor Diamond responded to my email.

What we do know is that, should Peter MacKay get the Conservative crown — and maybe fulfil his long-held ambition to lead Canada — he’ll have some history, and maybe some credit, with the controversial leader of the nation’s most populous and prosperous province.

David Rider is the Star's City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering city hall and municipal politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider

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