Councillor Doug Ford, under fire at City Hall for his outspoken, bare-knuckle style, says being a politician is the only thing that stopped him from fighting a verbally abusive bicycle courier last week.

The mayor’s brother described last week’s altercation Sunday on the Newstalk 1010 radio show he co-hosts with Rob Ford.

“I was thrown under the bus about 18 times last week,” Councillor Ford said, referring to recent criticism from sometime allies that his musing about subway financing options and his aggressive lobbying of colleagues has hurt the mayor’s transit agenda.

Doug Ford then said that last week he was accosted downtown by a bike courier, who said “some real nasty, nasty words” into the councillor’s SUV and then circled back to give him another earful.

The councillor, trying to drive into underground parking, got out because the courier was blocking him from pushing a button, he said.

“I told him if I wasn’t an elected official I’d kick his ass in about 10 seconds,” Doug Ford said. But the courier was still cursing him when he walked up from the garage, he said.

“All these construction guys are watching and he’s going at me full tilt and I’m thinking ‘Is this all part of the job, Rob never told me. . . ,” he said.

Mayor Rob Ford interjected: “There’d be one less courier because, trust me, Doug has been a kick boxer 10 years . . . I guarantee you that guy would have been history in about two seconds.”

The brothers used their third week behind the mics to push a subway extension for Sheppard Ave., with the mayor urging listeners to call councillors and demand they reject light rail transit on March 21.

Councillor Doug Ford said he is flying to Chicago and then his Florida condo for the March break, while the mayor, who is struggling to lose weight in his “Cut the Waist” challenge, is staying in Toronto.

“All I’m going to be doing is jogging around the track and trying to lose some weight for our Monday (March 19) weigh-in,” Mayor Ford said.

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