Mayor Rob Ford’s mother says her son needs to “smarten up,” but emphasized that he is not a drug addict and does not need to step down to change his life around.

Speaking to CP24’s Stephen LeDrew Thursday afternoon at her Etobicoke home, Diane Ford and her daughter, Kathy, agreed the behaviour of their son and brother this past year is unacceptable for the mayor of Toronto, while blaming the media for most of the pressure that he has been under and for showing a lack of “forgiveness.”

In the rare interview, taped just hours after the Star posted a video showing a clearly erratic Ford going off on a murderous rant, Diane Ford said with a confident tone that “there’s nothing he can’t recover from, and he will recover.”

“He did what he did, he made a mistake, he admitted to his mistake,” she said, praising her son for showing such “strong character.”

Without going into specifics, she described the mistake as “not a nice one,” but said rehab for the mayor is out of the question, painting a portrait of a man far too dedicated to his job to take time off for a full recovery.

“Rob has an active mind, Rob has an active body,” she said, while also mentioning that her son has a “weight problem.”

“He’s got to be moving, he’s got to be thinking, he’s got to be productive.”

She said if her son was “really, really in dire straits,” she would be the first to put him in her car and take him to get help, but she didn’t elaborate on how bad things would have to be to prompt such action from the family.

But she said that during a family meeting last Friday she told Ford to do five things: get a driver, do something about his weight, install an alcohol detector in the car, watch the company he keeps and see a counsellor.

Diane Ford said her son can “absolutely” improve while still on the job, though many city councillors are looking for ways to persuade the mayor to step aside.

She completely dismissed the idea that her son is a lax mayor, despite accusations he has a very light itinerary and has missed city council meetings.

“He has been to work every single day … People want to say, ‘Oh my goodness, he’s ignoring council, he’s ignoring his job at city hall.’ He isn’t. He’s not,” she said. “Every single weekend, he was at every parade. I’d say, ‘When are you coming over for dinner?’ He’d say, ‘Oh, I can’t, Mom.’ He’s so busy.”

Ford is of course infamous for missing one of Toronto’s largest parades, the Pride Parade, each year since his election in 2010.

The Ford family matriarch’s home has hosted family meetings since Police Chief Bill Blair announced last week that police are now in possession of the video showing the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.

The home is also famous for hosting the annual Ford Fest up until last year.

Rob Ford has said he wants that video to be made public, while calling the second video released Thursday “embarrassing.”

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Kathy Ford, at times stumbling over her words, displayed full sisterly support for younger brother “Robbie,” adding that that support would endure until her “dying day.” She implied the CP24 interview was her idea, while later saying, “I just avoid the media as much as I can, but I had to fight back.”

A confessed drug addict herself, with a troubled past of violent boyfriends that included being shot in the face in her mother’s kitchen in 2005, Kathy said she knows her brother is not an addict, but was less dismissive of the suggestion that he may be an alcoholic.

“As an alcoholic, if you want to consider binge drinking once every three months and you get totally plastered, which … he just makes a fool of himself … fine,” she said. “He doesn’t drink every night. When Robbie drinks, I think he just goes full tilt.”

While admitting to having smoked crack cocaine sometime in the past year, and acknowledging that his notorious displays of public drunkenness were wrong, Rob Ford has said he is not an addict.

The interview briefly touched on the family’s close relationship with federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who served in the Ontario legislature with the late Doug Sr. and whom Diane Ford described as a “sterling” man. Earlier on Thursday, Flaherty, appearing to hold back tears, said that it was up to the mayor to seek help.

Other major characters in Ford’s circle who were discussed in the interview were big brother Councillor Doug Ford, who this week called for Blair’s resignation, and Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, Ford’s friend and occasional driver, who has been charged with drug trafficking as well as extortion for his alleged attempts to retrieve the first Ford video.

Kathy Ford said it would not have been a good idea for Doug to participate in the CP24 interview because he “needs time to chill out and just cool down, because he’s hot.”

“I feel so sorry for Doug, he has backed Robbie immensely,” she said. “When it all comes down to the bottom line, he will be there for Rob.”

When it came to Lisi, whom she said she has met several times, Kathy Ford was more hesitant in her description.

At first she said, “I don’t think this guy is as they’re making him out to be,” before apologizing and saying she doesn’t have all the evidence, and that perhaps she shouldn’t speak about him. She did say, however, that “you cannot associate with these types of people. I’m the first one now to realize that.”

Both Diane and Kathy drove the message home that “family is best,” and when Rob is fully ready to improve, they will be there for him.

“He’s gotta do it,” said Diane. “I can’t do it for him, his brother can’t do it, none of us can, but we can stand in support of him while he’s trying to, and he will. I’m convinced that he will.”