FACT CHECK “BC Transit retiring Victoria’s original double decker buses, were 1st in North America”
The Headline is taken from a CTV Vancouver Island news story which is just wrong.
The first paragraph tries to nuance the headline a bit but doesn’t get it right either. The twenty year old retiring buses were “reportedly the first double decker buses to ever be used in a North American public transit system.”
Actually there were double deckers running on 5th Avenue in New York City in 1912 – as a Google search will confirm.
Paul Bateson reminds me that Brampton Transit in Ontario had a double decker Leyland Olympian that entered service in March 1989.
Victoria, of course, has had double decker sightseeing buses – most retired from the UK – for many years
Stephen Rees's blog 
Looking at the New York City photo reminded me of my old crawling-to-stomping grounds around 8th and Pine Street, up until 1959. In celebration of the NEW Granville Street Bridge the City had a Ferris Wheel set up just north of the Fir Street off ramp.
NVG
December 2, 2020 at 4:08 pm
Similarly, the CBC National had a story on the Toronto Transit Commission’s battery-electric bus evaluation project. At 60 buses, the narrator stated this was the largest electric bus fleet in North America. Which of course, ignores the much larger, electric trolley bus fleets in Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Mexico City. The clip is at https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1825879619943.
Rick
December 2, 2020 at 9:57 pm