Located in the north of the island of Montreal, it runs parallel to Gouin Boulevard.

Spanning 29 kilometres (18 miles) in length, it links the borough of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles in the east to a junction with Autoroute 13 and Alfred Nobel Boulevard in Saint-Laurent in the west.

The street is renamed after Henri Bourassa (1868–1952), a Quebec nationalist politician, and founder of the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir.

[1] Further east, the boulevard was built on what was a private right-of-way owned and operated as a tramway line by the Montreal Park and Island Railway Company, a predecessor of today's Montreal Transit Corporation.

[2] Further west, the boulevard was built from Bois Franc Road.