Born in Montréal in 1963, Gordon grew up in a family of six boys where sports, especially hockey, and snowy cold winters were a way of life. When his English-speaking parents decided to send him off to a French school in Montreal when he was a child, a lifelong relationship with French and more generally, language began. After studying the classical guitar during high school, Gordon did a French literature degree at the University of Western Ontario and completed a teaching program at the University of British Columbia in 1992. He went on to become a teacher in the Canadian French Immersion program in southwestern Ontario while raising a family of four girls.