Coun. Rob Ford says he could have defeated Mayor John Tory at the polls last fall if he hadn't withdrawn from the race.

"I didn't lose to him. I think I would have beaten him, you know, if I would have stayed on the ballot, but I wasn't on the ballot," Ford said during a nine-minute interview on Newstalk 1010 on Thursday morning.

Coun. Rob Ford told a radio station on Thursday that he believes he could have beat Mayor John Tory in last fall's election, had he not withdrawn from the race. (CBC)

Ford had to withdraw from the October mayoral contest in the wake of a cancer diagnosis.

Instead, he moved his name to the ballot in Ward 2, which he had represented as a councillor prior to being elected mayor in 2010.

Former councillor Doug Ford took his brother's place in the mayoral race.

On Election Night, Tory was voted in as the city's next mayor and Rob Ford was elected as a councillor. As a result, they are now members of the same council with Tory now wearing the chain of office.

Earlier this week, Tory reminded Ford at council that he had won the election.

But from what Ford asserted on the radio Thursday, it appears the former mayor doesn't feel he was personally defeated by Tory.

'Somebody must have made that mistake'

Ford has previously said he will run again in 2018, as long as he is healthy.

"My biggest concern right now is my cancer. I really want this cancer taken care of," he said Thursday.

Ford told the radio station he has yet to learn whether the tumour in his body has shrunk to the point where it small enough for doctors to remove it.

The interview Ford gave Thursday came a day after he was kicked out of a council meeting for remarks he made as he asked questions about a report related to sending a delegation to Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy. The $20,000 cost had not been included in the report.

Ford said he found it "hard to believe" the omission in the report was unintentional.

The Speaker of the council asked Ford to retract his remarks and apologize, but he didn't comply.

"Somebody must have made that mistake intentionally, somebody must have," Ford said on Newstalk 1010, a day later.