For fuck sakes, it is Yahoo's periodic post again, and again everyone falls for it, and again he fails to realize everything explained to him the last time he posted a huge rant.
Yahoo, instead of doing this every few months please just go back read you previous rant, and read all the responses to it over the last few pages of this thread.
But or fun, here is quick summary:
Huge portions of the TCH between Kamloops and Alberta are federal, not provincial.
Building highways in BC is insanely expensive compared to Alberta for various geographical and geological reasons.
BC is not linear, we have many other important highways than just the TCH to improve upon, and have been doing so (quick examples are the Cariboo Connecter 4 lanning project to Prince George, the Okanagan corridor 4 lanning projects which are insanely expensive being built along cliffs over hanging lakes)
BC has no major population centers east of Salmon Arm, hence connections between Kamloops / Okanagan / Lower Mainland / Vancouver Island / and now Prince George take priority.
BC is criss-crossed with huge rivers / lakes not found in Alberta, and big bridges are very expensive, and many have recently been built.
I could go on, but it is pointless.
All I can say is my trips to Kamloops this summer have been a breeze from Vancouver with nice freeways the entire length
It is also nice to see all the twinning action in the Cariboo to where my parents live near 100 mile
And to answer Craner's question, yes a by-pass has been toyed with in the past, but it would involve a very long bridge over the lake. Therefore it would be very expensive, also the city of Salmon Arm would probably be against it as would environmentalists, etc...