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A former United States ambassador to Canada is sounding the alarm that a second Donald Trump presidency would cause chaos for Canadians as he urged Americans abroad that their votes could prove crucial in the presidential election.

Bruce Heyman, who served as ambassador from 2014 to 2017, gave Canada a "tsunami warning," saying if Trump takes the White House, Canada is at great risk.

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He says there are at least 6.5 million eligible voters living in other countries, mainly in Canada and Mexico.

When U.S. President Joe Biden was elected in 2020, Heyman says votes from Americans abroad played a key role in clinching battleground states.

Heyman said much of that support was shored up through a website and outreach targeting American voters from abroad.

Those efforts resulted in the amount of votes from Americans elsewhere in the world increasing by more than 73 per cent in 2016, and half of those votes went to battleground states.

"Americans in Canada, you can be part of the decision of who wins the election in the United States," Heyman said on Wednesday.

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The first Trump administration proved tumultuous for Canada, he said, with the former president's policies affecting more than trade.

Thousands of people in the U.S., afraid of rumours of deportation, started travelling into Canada outside of regular border crossings.

Trump has promised to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants if he gets a second term. Heyman said he believes that people, once again motivated by fear, would start to flee north in even higher numbers.