They can’t see the woods for the trees, eh? 
Trends move north. I expect Canadian conservatives to pretend they care about flag pins any day now.
The common perception of Harper among people I talk to is that he’s unlikeable, uncharismatic and abrasive (even abusive) but competent, a fighter, and not personally corrupt. He’s avoided actually enacting any of the annoying social-conservative platform by throwing meaningless sops to the social-conservative wing of his party (re-opening the debate on gay marriage, anyone?).
As long as people keep believing the latter attributes are true, they’ll keep holding their noses and voting him into office, no matter how big an asshole he is.
That’s why, for example, the ads the Cons ran depicting Harper as a lovable guy in a sweater aroused widespread scorn, yet didn’t sink him. Most people know he’s a jerk, any attempts to portray him as a nice guy are just going to backfire - but by and large they don’t care.
Now, there are lots of reasons to attack the cons on policies - they spend too much, their record on certain issues is shaky. None of which so far at least loses them the incumbent advantage.
He doesn’t want to tell them, because the forest is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He’s never actually moved back to Canada, and is running his campaign from Harvard. The past 4 years? All a lie. All of the appearances, it’s all been doubles and CGI.