The Liberals won’t say who they have in mind to replace Windsor-Tecumseh MPP and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.

“The body’s not even buried yet, as far as Dwight goes,” said Milan Stipic, the former president of the Windsor-Tecumseh Provincial Liberal Association and current area coordinator for Ontario Liberal Party.

Stipic left his riding post two days before the Liberal leadership convention in order to open a delegate vote in support of Sandra Pupatello, who finished second to Kathleen Wynne.

Duncan had promised to step down and offer his seat to Pupatello had she won the leadership. She lost and Duncan stuck with his retirement. He made it official on Twitter and Facebook early Thursday morning.

“It perhaps would have solved one of our problems, locally. It was an obvious fit. It hasn’t turned out,” Stipic said of Pupatello’s fate. “It’s kind of a fluid situation now. At this point, there is not a person behind the scenes that is ‘the candidate.’

“In the near future we’ll be looking for a new candidate for Windsor-Tecumseh.”

Wynne, who officially becomes premier Monday, has six months to call a by-election in order to replace Duncan, who had been an MPP since 1995 and won five consecutive elections.

'Seat up for grabs'

University of Windsor political science professor Lydia Miljan says the Liberals will have a tough time winning a by-election.

“With [Duncan] stepping down and no high-profile candidate, this is a seat up for grabs. My money is on the NDP,” she said.

Miljan said the NDP’s Andrew McAvoy “made huge inroads in that riding” during the last general election.

“This is a riding that could go NDP,” she said.

The Progressive Conservatives have already named their candidate. Robert de Verteuil will run for election.

“They’re much more likely to have a fighting chance in a general election,” Miljan said of the Liberals. “We don’t know what kind of deal the Liberals with have with the opposition in the next budget.

“If it seems like there is a strong bond and they will be able to hold onto power for a year or two it would make sense to hold a by-election.”