Rob Ford: ‘Rehab Is Amazing’

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford tells to the media to get off his property as he leaves his home in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. A judge on Wednesday ordered the release of police documents in the drug case against a f... Toronto Mayor Rob Ford tells to the media to get off his property as he leaves his home in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. A judge on Wednesday ordered the release of police documents in the drug case against a friend of Ford. Peter Jacobsen, a lawyer for various Canadian news organizations that pushed to release the records, said the case against Alexander Lisi involves the mayor. (AP Photo/, Nathan Denette) MORE LESS
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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is in rehab and apparently loving it.

“I feel great,” Ford told The Toronto Sun in an interview published Wednesday. “Rehab is amazing. It reminds me of football camp. Kind of like the Washington Redskins camp I went to as a kid.”

Ford announced last week that he was taking a leave of absence to treat his substance abuse problems, following the Sun’s report of an audio recording featuring Ford ranting at a bar, and The Globe and Mail’s report of a new video showing him smoking what is believed to be crack cocaine.

Ford told the Sun he would be back in time for Toronto’s mayoral election, and that he is even doing campaign work from rehab.

“Of course, I am coming back and I am going to kick butt,” he said. “I asked for my calls sheets and I am making calls to constituents. … I am getting help but I still want to help.”

Ford gave the interview from an undisclosed rehab facility, but he offered the Sun some details about his treatment. He said he was participating in group meetings and one-on-one sessions, that he was working out every day, and that he was “learning about myself, my past and things like that.” He said the topic of his being mayor of Toronto has not come up much at the facility.

“They know but there are two doctors here, a captain of industry and a professional athlete,” Ford said. “There are terrific people in my group. We are all supporting each other. We are connecting in a weird way.”

Ford told the Sun he was coming to terms with everything that had happened.

“At first, I was mad. I was mad at myself and saying, ‘Why me?’ ” Ford said. “But then I realized it could have been a whole lot worse.”

Read the whole thing here.

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Notable Replies

  1. From everything I’ve ever heard or seen, if rehab is fun, you ain’t doing it right.

    There is considerable belief here in Toronto that Ford has never entered rehab at all. That he’s holed up at his family’s Muskoka cottage.

  2. Ford is lying. This is 2014. Most of us know people who have been through rehab. This is not a man in rehab.

  3. He’ll spin out and crash into the ground shortly after this diversion.

  4. Given that he was on a plane trying and failing to land in Chicago two days ago, even if he entered rehab immediately after that, he should be firmly in the “this sucks so bad, I’m not sure I should have come” phase. Sounds like he’s parroting his general impressions of how some people who successfully complete rehab feel about it afterward. His current whereabouts? On a river in Egypt.

  5. Since he had admitted, on tape, that he was a crack smoker, the U.S. at Midway Airport decided to not allow him to enter the U.S.

    I too, doubt that he is in a rehab facility. He has a recorded history of lying; why should we expect him to tell the truth now?

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