TORONTO—Rob Ford says he’s due for a fifth round of chemotherapy next week but that if he beats cancer he'll take another run for mayor of Toronto.
Ford, now a city councillor, told local TV station CP24 that his health is up and down but that he’s “not going to stop fighting.”
The ailing Ford says he is returning to hospital Monday for five straight days of treatment with results due in 2015, adding that chemo leaves him laid out in bed for a week after.
Asked about a comeback mayoral campaign in the 2018 election, Ford says “if my health holds up my name will be on the ballot.”
The controversial ex-mayor ditched his re-election campaign after doctors in September found a cancerous mass in Ford’s abdomen, but he ran for council and took back his old seat.
In the interview, Ford was repentant for his past unsavoury behaviour that brought international attention to the city—from admitting to smoking crack to his lewd remarks—saying “it was all my own fault.”
“I can’t change the way things happened. They’re done. It’s under the bridge. I feel embarrassed by it, and I apologize,” he said Wednesday.
“And I still continue apologizing for embarrassing the city, but I can’t change anything. I just gotta move on and that’s what I’m doing.”
Though the next mayoral race is four years off, Ford said he’s already got his election gears turning.
“I’m plotting it out as we speak. I’m ready to go, I just gotta make sure my health is OK,” he said.
“First and foremost is my health and my family.”
