First western post; planted by Canadian Highway Association; at Alberni; British Columbia; 4th May; 1912. The Canadian Highway Association was founded in 1911 to lobby federal and provincial governments to construct a transcontinental road across Canada. Several dozen members of the newly-formed CHA met in Alberni; on Vancouver Island; with a convoy of 50 cars from the Victoria Automobile Club; in order to demonstrate the need for a highway linking the provinces from Pacific to Atlantic. The president of the Victoria Automobile Club; Albert E. Todd; donated a gold medal to be awarded to the first driver to make it from ocean to ocean entirely on Canadian roads; and the lobbying drivers staked a signpost at Alberni next to the Pacific Ocean that declared itself to be a "Canadian Highway". The Trans-Canada Highway was not completed for another 50 years; officially opening to traffic on July 31; 1962; 4 May 1912