Reviewing “If You Want to Win, You’ve Got to Fight”

Over the years, I have read a number of books about cycling and active transportation. These included changes made in various places such as “Streetfight” in New York City and “Building the Cycling City” in the Netherlands, the harms of car dependency such as “Life After Cars”, historical takes like “Wheeling Through Toronto”, and niche topics such as “Frostbike” about winter cycling. However, I hadn’t come across an advocacy focused book until I heard about Carter Lavin’s “If You Want to Win, You’ve Got to Fight” on social media including a video on Tom Babin’s YouTube channel (at the end of this post) which highlighted five advocacy mistakes. Let’s dive in to see what that book’s about.

My overall impression was it’s a short but effective advocacy handbook which applies to walking, cycling, and transit while providing a linear progression from those starting out to building teams and coalitions, managing inside and outside activities, and executing various campaign tactics. It starts off with a powerful statement that every transportation decision we make is political – including those who maintain the car dependent status quo – and that we can’t view politics as a dirty word. Many view politics as partisan politics – including the nasty exchanges we see during question period in Canada’s House of Commons or provincial legislatures – but it’s a much broader definition which is about people shaping and influencing each other’s lives.

The book covers various types of political fights including cultural, policy, and political; as well as a need to take process into account. It highlights how to do power mapping to better understand who influences decision makers (and agencies). Building and managing teams involves a ladder of engagement where people progress from the general public to supporters (by signing a petition) to volunteers (even by sharing a petition) to leaders (who recruit volunteers and help move the campaign forward). As campaigns get larger, the role of structure becomes more important. Most importantly, the book makes the case to understand context specific to your city, province (or state), and country. Since this book is written from an American perspective, I will go over some Canada specific nuances, though the general themes of the book can still be universally applied.

While ballot box questions (or referendums) are relatively common in the United States including one which supported high speed rail in California, they are rare in Canada. There was only one transportation referendum in recent years which was held in Vancouver in 2015.  The question was to support a 0.5% sales tax increase to fund transit, but it was unfortunately defeated given the opposition’s focus on the perceived mismanagement of TransLink. Counties play a much more significant role in the United States whereas county (or regional) governments between the city and province are not universal in Canada. Toronto has been a single tier government – meaning no upper tier regional one – since the megacity merger in 1998, while several other Ontario cities such as Ottawa and Hamilton are also single tier.

In the case of Toronto (and other Canadian cities), the division of responsibilities is clearer with cities being responsible for public transit and active transportation, though provincial and federal governments often provide funding. However, Canadian cities are seen as “creatures of the province” in which provincial governments can interfere as we have seen with Doug Ford’s attacks on bike lanes with Bills 212 and 60. Similar mechanisms exist in the United States in which New York State Governor Kathy Hochul temporarily paused New York City’s congestion charge before finally allowing it, while the Trump administration attempted to remove bike lanes in Washington, DC.

If there was one chapter I found to be very useful, it’s Chapter 6 which focused on managing inside and outside campaigns. Lavin used an example of getting California Governor Gavin Newsom to reverse proposed transit cuts which was successful and even got additional funding. There were certain coalition members which were more aggressive and blocked highways (a.k.a. outside campaign), while others were inside the state capitol of Sacramento negotiating with government officials (a.k.a. inside campaign). That chapter talks about bringing the outside in by having constituents tell politicians their stories, as well as brining the inside out by taking politicians on a bus or bike ride to show them firsthand experiences. However, it’s important for outside and inside coalition members to maintain clear communication to achieve a successful outcome.

As for Chapter 7 on tactics, fellow advocates reading this are likely already familiar with them. These include petitions, tabling, coalition letters, online campaigns, flyering, and canvassing. It also covers delivering the message to elected officials, managing media relations, escalating pressure, adjusting the message as needed, and certain election strategies such as candidate report cards and helping with campaigns. As for campaigns, it should be noted Canadian organizations that are registered charities – which can issue tax receipts – have strict requirements on which political activities are acceptable. While petitions and doing candidate report cards are fine, partisan activities such as endorsing (or attacking) candidates are not allowed. Board members – who legally represent a charity – are also advised against doing partisan activities even in a personal capacity including making donations of $100 or more to a candidate which becomes public record.

As I stated in the beginning, this book is a very useful advocacy tool. However, I would have wondered how Mr. Lavin and others would have approached Ontario’s situation where even a province-wide coalition and every tool possible such as petitions, contacting politicians, and holding protest rides couldn’t stop Premier Doug Ford from ramming through Bills 212 and 60 which restricted bike lane installations and threatened to remove existing ones. Even with these destructive actions, Ford’s Progressive Conservative (PC) party secured a third straight majority government last year and there won’t be a provincial election for another three to four years. While the fight is not over, there is a need to better connect with suburban voters if we are to end Ford’s tenure as Premier.