Toronto’s embattled mayor says people “will see a different Rob Ford” when he emerges from rehab and returns to his post and the mayoral race on Canada Day.

In an interview with Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington, Ford confirmed he is planning to leave rehab June 30 and make a political comeback, starting with public events July 1.

“I want to have time for a workout first and say goodbye to some people here," Ford told Warmington. "When you spend this kind of time with people you develop some friendships. They have been very good to me."

Ford told the Sun he "misses" the people of Toronto and he wants to make amends. He insisted he's to blame for his problems.

“No one has enabled me. You do booze or drugs because you want to do it. It’s a cop-out to blame it on others. No one has enabled me,” he said.

Warmington told CP24 he spoke to Ford by telephone Saturday night while the mayor was at the GreeneStone residential addiction treatment facility in Muskoka.

“It sounded to me like he is doing OK and he is anxious to return to this race," Warmington said Monday morning.

Warmington said he called the mayor to find out if he was still in rehab after a photo of Ford was shown to journalists at the National Newspaper Awards ceremony in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

The photo apparently shows Ford on a dock at GreeneStone and it raised questions about whether the mayor was at the facility or his family's cottage, the columnist said.

“He thinks that somebody kind of snuck in the bushes and took this picture while he was swimming there,” Warmington said.

Ford told the columnist he has not visited the family cottage.

Warmington hasn’t seen the photo in question but Ford provided a different picture that he says was taken by a fellow resident of the facility.

The cellphone photo, published on the cover of Monday’s Toronto Sun, shows Ford bare chested and smiling in waist-deep water in a swimming pool.

Even though he is in rehab, Ford has been making and receiving phone calls, and he has been spotted several times in the Muskoka area.

Last month, his Cadillac Escalade was impounded after a woman was pulled over by police and charged with impaired driving in Bracebridge. Lee Anne McRobb, who reportedly met the mayor in rehab, was the lone occupant of the vehicle when it was stopped, police said.

Ford entered rehab after he faced fresh allegations of drug and alcohol use.

He announced April 30 he was taking an immediate leave of absence after it emerged that two Globe and Mail reporters had viewed a new video that allegedly shows him smoking from a pipe in his sister’s basement.

The newspaper paid $10,000 for a series of screenshots that show Ford holding a pipe. A self-professed drug dealer, who is trying to sell the video, told the Globe the mayor was smoking crack cocaine. The video has not been seen by the public.

As that report surfaced, Ford faced questions from the Sun about an audio tape where he was heard making inappropriate comments about colleagues, including mayoral challenger Coun. Karen Stintz, at an Etobicoke bar.

Ford has already faced plenty of criticism and calls for his resignation over a video that shows him smoking from a glass pipe and allegedly making homophobic and racist remarks.

The video has not been viewed by the public, but it has been seized by police as part of their investigation into the mayor and his friend Alexander Lisi. The video's existence was first reported by Gawker, an online gossip source, and the Toronto Star in May 2013.

Late last year, Ford admitted to smoking crack cocaine and purchasing drugs while in office, and driving while impaired. He has also come under fire for associating with alleged gang members or drug dealers, and for appearing in public while intoxicated.

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