Laurier was in a terrible box. Laurier's caucus came from both French speaking Canada and English speaking Canada. The pressure to do something in South Africa was very strongly felt amongst the English speakers, and the resistance against this was very strongly felt amongst the French speaking members of his caucus. Moreover, there was an English language press campaign that brought acute pressure on Laurier. One has the sense for the first time that the two great divisions of the country are staring at each other across a chasm and Laurier, somehow or other, has to bridge that. His compromise was that he would permit the sending of volunteers, but that this would constitute no precedent.
But sending them is a precedent. What you're really doing is responding, not just to English Canada, but to the supplications of the British, and you're becoming involved in Imperial wars, no matter how you attempt to "sugar coat" it. But his party was not seriously split over the issue. On the other hand, a fissure had opened which the Conservatives were able to take advantage of next time around, so that Laurier goes out in 1911. And I think that the beginnings of that relate to the South African War.
