Born on February 16, 1987, Bourdon was an only child raised by his mother, Suzanne Boucher, in the small French-speaking community of Shippagan, New Brunswick. When he was nine, he was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis and needed to use a wheelchair, which he later overcame. As a teenager, he attended Marie-Esther Secondary, where he was a straight-A student. Growing up in a fishing town, he worked summers on his uncle\'s crab fishing boat.\n', '

As a youth, Bourdon played in the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments with the Peninsule Acadien Lynx minor ice hockey team. He later played with the Miramichi Rivermen minor teams from ages 15–16. After being the third overall choice in the 2003 QMJHL draft, Bourdon left home when he was 16, returning in the off-season to live with his mother. Upon turning professional and signing his first contract, he anonymously donated C$10,000 to the local minor hockey association for families who could not afford equipment. His donation was posthumously revealed by his former bantam hockey coach, Gilles Cormier, who managed the local arena at the time of Bourdon\'s death.\n', '

Bourdon joined the Val-d\'Or Foreurs for the 2003–04 season, registering eight points in 64 regular season games and scoring one goal in seven playoff games. He appeared in all 70 games with the Foreurs in 2004–05, scoring 13 goals and 19 assists, and participated in the CHL Top Prospects Game, an exhibition for draft-eligible players. In June 2005, Bourdon was the tenth pick overall, selected by the Vancouver Canucks, at the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. Ranked sixth overall for North American skaters coming into the draft, Bourdon was noted as a physical two-way defenceman with significant offensive skills and a strong shot, as well as an excellent skater. He was the second Shippagan-born hockey player to be drafted in the NHL, after goaltender Yanick Degrace was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1991.\n', '

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