TORONTO

Mayor Rob Ford said the best part of how he feels right now is he is able to get up and into work early.

He seems to have his sense of humour back.

“I am not hung over anymore in the mornings,” he said with a laugh Thursday night. “I can get to the gym at 7 a.m. and then get into work early.”

This, he admits, was not the case when in the year or so before he finally came to the realization, “I was an alcoholic and had problems.”

He said he was in constant denial and is “embarrassed” about all of it.

“I was lying to myself and to everybody else,” he said. “And I didn’t think there was anything I could do to deal with it. I felt I was alone in the world. I felt there was nothing anybody could do to help me.”

Ford said most of his drinking “was when I was alone” and that he “humiliated” and sometimes “made a fool of myself.”

The drug use, which included crack cocaine, was done while under the influence of excessive alcohol.

It was when I played him the audio of a drunken, perhaps racial, misogynist and homophobic rant in his neighbourhood bar, Sully Gormans, when he finally realized there was no more going on like that and on the spot, he chose rehabilitation.

He ended up in a Muskoka rehab.

And now the mayor said, just three days back from two months away, he is hoping for another chance and that a majority of Torontonians will give it to him.

“I know I lied to them,” he said.

But now he wants to make amends.

“I am laser focused and already this week they have seen down at city hall that the real mayor is back in town,” he said.

Ford said he is upset about "stuff being pushed through like $1 million for some rocks and umbrellas and a beach or millions of dollars for a bike track. That kind of stuff is going to stop."

Mayor Ford knows, however, if he even has just one drunken episode all his comeback hopes will be dashed.

“It would be over,” he said in an interview Thursday night. “I know that.”

Polls show he is still very much in the race for mayor but for political survival it’s razor thin line he straddles. While there are many who would love to push him over that line, it’s more what he does himself that will decide how this story shakes out.

He is well aware this is his last chance.

“I know I need to prove to people (that there will be no more antics) and gain their trust again,” he said. “I am going to show them over the next four months.”

Talk about pressure.

Not only does the mayor need to battle his self-admitted alcoholism and drug use after 60 days of rehabilitation, but he must do it with an international audience watching every step. “It’s just one day at a time,” he said. “But I feel great.”

He looks good too. Sobriety serves him well.

I caught up with Ford at his six-year-old son Dougie’s soccer game over at Richview Park.

He was really loose and in a great mood, taking dozens of pictures and chatting with parents, coaches, referees and kids.

The mayor was animated on the sidelines as he cheered on his son and jovial with us.

After cancelling earlier scheduled interviews with both myself and Toronto Sun City Hall Bureau Chief Don Peat, Ford changed his mind and agreed to meet up with me at the game Thursday night.

“I am just so happy to be home,” he said. “It is incredible. And there is nothing more important to me than my kids.”

I don’t write columns for approval of other media, Twitter or political operatives. And to Ford’s credit, no matter how much I have badgered him or criticized him, he has never dodged me — even when the news is not good for him.

“You have hammered me for sure,” he said. “But you have also been fair.”

It is true. All sides of Ford’s behaviour have been covered in numerous columns.

I will let you, the voters, decide his fate. I do hope for him beating his demons though.

“I know what I did and I have apologized to the whole city for it,” he said.

There is, however, nothing wrong with those who are outraged by his behaviour not accepting that and heckling him. But there is also nothing wrong with those prepared to cut the guy a break and see if this attempt to straighten out his life is successful. I fall into the latter camp no matter how the press gallery or editorial writers feel about it.

Lots of others, on council or in sports, entertainment and federal and provincial politics, have been given courtesies and considerations.

“You are never going to get 100% support in politics,” Ford said laughing.

But, like with the other interviews this week, the mayor did not answer questions about a police investigation or what went on with the woman who was charged for impaired driving at the wheel of his SUV while he was in GreeneStone. He said he is leaving the past behind and looking to the future.

“With all due respect, Joe, I am not worried about the media,” he said. “People are going to speak on 0ct 27.”

If he stays sober, Mayor Ford will not be the only one up early that day.